Windows Phone - An Unclear Future

It was fun while it lasted Microsoft.

As a dedicated reader of this fine blog you have probably accused me from to time of being a "Microsoft Fan Boy". Although these statements and accusations are unfounded I understand some of the reasons for the remarks. However it should be understood that as a Chief Information Officer (CIO) one of your primary responsibilities is placing your organization's staff in the best position possible for getting work done.

For many years in our organization Blackberry (RIM) was our mobile device of choice. If you were assigned a smartphone, you were issued a Blackberry. No questions asked. However as early as 2010 Blackberry's mobile empire began crumbling and soon Android and Apple were controlling the market share. Organizations everywhere, with government agencies not far behind were moving to other mobile platforms in droves. Today 90% of the mobile market is controlled by Android and Apple with Microsoft in 3rd place and Blackberry struggling to merely survive. This situation has created some challenges for information technology professionals. Android devices have countless different models with various variants of Android operating systems (versions) while Apple devices can be restrictive in what organizations want to do. With Blackberry's demise Microsoft has made a strong effort to step in and grab the "enterprise" share of the mobile market. As has been typical of Microsoft their decision to get in the mobile game was probably 3-4 years later then it should have been and it has been a struggle to find success.

As a result of all of this technology staffs everywhere have had to purchase, issue and support many types of devices and operating systems just so their employees could receive and send email, work on documents and have access to applications on the go. Then when you consider BYOD (bring your own device) issues the challenges are substantial and time consuming for technology staffs everywhere. These are some of the reasons that finding one mobile solution that can be issued throughout an organization is so appealing to technology services.

With all of this in mind I switched to a Windows Phone in October 2012 and I have been using a Windows Phone (Lumia 928) since. There have been good times and bad times with this phone.

The Highlights of the Windows Phone experience include:

• Microsoft Office interrogation.
• Skydrive interrogation.
• Excellent cross application social-media interrogation.
• The most unique customizable smartphone available today with adjustable live tiles replacing the decade old use of icons.

Areas where improvement is needed:

• Apps. It is clear that consumers and enterprise users now expect apps available for almost everything on their mobile devices. Microsoft is seriously behind in this area and needs to improve here if double digit market share is ever to be achieved.
• More devices on more carriers. For example Verizon Wireless seems to be lagging behind ATT with Microsoft phones. An example of this is the excellent Lumia 1020 which sports an amazing 41mega pixel camera which is very attractive. However Verizon months later is no closer to having a similar model available.

Microsoft is now going through major leadership changes and the road is a little unclear in respect to their smartphone platform. However the good news for Microsoft is that the Windows Phone platform is actually very good. Microsoft however needs a solid direction and if improvements are quickly made in the areas I suggest I believe good times are ahead. However this will take a little time and I decided to take a pause when it comes to requiring Microsoft Phones in our workplace for the near future while I monitor the situation. I hope that Microsoft moves quickly because I will miss much about my Windows Phone and I still recommend it if the person is right for the phone.

I hope to be using a new improved Windows Phone soon and finding one smartphone to control them all in the workplace soon. But for now I needed to make a switch and what would that be?

Stay tuned.