Microsoft recently released a statement telling everyone to switch from Windows Mobile to Apple iOS or Google Android as the end of Windows Mobile is scheduled for December of 2019. This was Microsofts last attempt at a mobile platform and it failed but this was destined to fail just like so many other Microsoft platforms due to lack of app support.

We all use the apps on our phones on a daily basis. I used three apps already this morning just before I started writing. Since the start of the smartphone, Apps were the lifeblood of the world of mobile. Everyone who has a smartphone has come to rely on these apps for daily information, tasks, and other functions to help us get through the day. You would think Microsoft would have understood that after all the failures they have had in other spaces due to lack of app support.

Microsoft mobile failed because basically there were no good apps for the platform. People can move from iOS to Android or Android to iOS because the apps they use every day are for the most part on either platform the same could not be said for the windows mobile platform. This is the same reason Blackberry and Palm fell from dominance in the mobile market.

This is a case where Microsoft should have learned their lesson from the mobile platform but they did not. When they released Windows 10S to be a competitor with Chrombooks and the ChromeOS again the platform failed because of the app store for Windows 10 S pails in comparison to the Google Chrome and Android Play Store. Google Chromebooks have found their nitch because of this reason have grabbed a good size piece of the PC market.

Then Microsoft tried their hand at Cortana and while I never really thought Cortana on the PC was a google play compared to smart speakers again an epic failure. While Cortana was built right and could have possibly compared to Google or Alexa even with Microsoft having Bing as the backend Cortana recently admitted defeat. Look at the difference, Cortana had around 50 apps or skills as they call them in the AI world. Then you look at the Amazon Alexa with over 75,000 skills its not hard to understand why they won over Cortana.

Microsoft Edge is another example of this Microsoft made a browser with the ability for developers to make add-ons similar to Firefox and Chrome. Again it failed with less than 4% of the market share why because they only had about 100 add-ons for the browser where Firefox and Chrome have tens of thousands of add-ons. I will say Microsoft Edge may recover because Microsoft may be using chromium as their base for a new browser if this is true this could help them streamline Edge get some market share and maybe even turn around Windows S. That’s a long shot but it will remain to be seen.

My point is Microsoft has made some great platforms but without app support, these platforms will not take off Microsoft is starting to realize that but its very late in the game for them I hope they can rebound and get this right.