Microsoft officially pulls the plug on Windows phone

Well, Microsoft's big smartphone dream is now officially over. Over the weekend, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, in a series of tweets confirmed that the software giant is no longer developing new features or hardware for Windows 10 Mobile.

Of course we'll continue to support the platform.. bug fixes, security updates, etc. But building new features/hw aren't the focus. 😟 https://t.co/0CH9TZdIFu

— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) October 8, 2017

But, as you can read in the tweet, existing Windows phone users needn't worry just yet- the company will keep supporting the platform with bug fixes, but no new features or hardware will be introduced.

Microsoft's struggle in the smartphone market has been all too apparent.  Microsoft shuttered its phone business last year, resulting in thousands of job cuts. During the recent Windows 10 Fall Creators Update development phase, it has been obvious Microsoft is no longer working on the mobile experience but the company never officially admitted it.

According to Belfiore, Microsoft never got over the app incentive hurdle, with a user volume too low to justify the investment from app developers.

We have tried VERY HARD to incent app devs. Paid money.. wrote apps 4 them.. but volume of users is too low for most companies to invest. ☹️ https://t.co/ePsySxR3LB

— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) October 8, 2017

Belfiore also admitted that he has switched to Android, just like Bill Gates, and that Microsoft will support Windows 10 customers who want to use Android and iOS on their phones. This means that instead of inventing a new OS, the Redmond-based company is now focussing on improving the link between the phone and the PC and resuming apps and documents between the two. The Edge browser is another project that is making its way to Android and iOS.