Why Windows Phone Failed

[@owencooktech]

Hey guys! Thanks for all the support! I really worked hard on this one and I'm proud of the results. I'm glad you like it too. I did realize one mistake. At 1:20 I spelled Steve Ballmer's name wrong. Whoops! Hope you enjoy.

[@BrowniesAreAmazing911]

You are AMAZING

[@owencooktech]

@@BrowniesAreAmazing911 lol thanks.

[@Nickool4u]

I loved this video, very informative. I’ve always liked seeing why companies failed or an abandoned certain products. Any chance you will talk about LG and why they decided to leave the phone market?

[@owencooktech]

@@Nickool4u ooh maybe. I'm trying to branch out a little from just phones. I'll add it to the list to look into.

[@Nickool4u]

@@owencooktech Great! Another idea would be to cover Sharp USA, how they sold their name to Hisense, then brought a lawsuit against them because they didn’t like how Hisense was using their name with cheap crappy TVs. Now Sharp is attempting again to sell TVs in the US market. I’m sure you’ll do a better job at explaining the history and lawsuit better than I did. 😂

[@typingcat]

At that point, Microsoft should have even paid developers to create apps for their Windows Phone, but they stupidly charged the annual development fee of $100, just like Apple, when they were not in Apple's position.

[@owencooktech]

Yeah they where trying to get on Apple's level without the necessary steps to get there.

[@BleedForTheWorld]

So greed was their downfall. Imagine if they had gotten away with it too. I would have preferred this to Apple's closed system but yeah.

[@tomer4566]

They did pay the top apps and games

[@AlanZeino]

They did do that, they made the Uber app on Windows Phone

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

@@BleedForTheWorldI hated Windows Phone, it was shit and hated their “live tiles” gimmick I couldn’t even wait to get back to iOS.

[@georgeofori7]

As a former Windows Phone user, I’m still sad that the platform never hit the heights it could have. The UI was amazing but the lack of apps made it so difficult to use. This was made worse by some big companies like Snapchat removing the ability for 3rd parties to produce apps for their platforms. I wish Microsoft had swallowed their pride and made it easier for developers to put their apps on windows phone. It may have saved it.

[@SphereFps]

They did try to reduce the barrier of entry for app developers coming from android by making a bridge in the last year or so of the windows 10 mobile lifetime, IIRC. Alas it didnt work well enough to lure developers in.

[@georgeofori7]

@@SphereFps I think that was too little, too late.

[@menace2society00]

I had a nokia windows phone back in high school, it was pretty dope. UI gave me big xbox roots and was more customizable than android at the time. (With the vanilla OS, android ofc is way more open sourced)

[@Omar-kl3xp]

@@SphereFpsit was too late already most people at the point were not going to buy a window phone even if it was better because of the reputation they had and also because IOS and Android were the standard already

[@zikkuraorgannon6680]

True. i still dont like apple and android ui after using windows phone one. Including the keyboard

[@misosoppa3279]

I was a Windows Phone Ambassador in 2012-14 and wooow was it an uphill battle... Travelling around Universities and conferences to promote Windows phone, and the first question people had was "how does app X work on it?" only to say that it didn't even exist was humiliating...

[@owencooktech]

Yeah no kidding. That's really interesting. Such an awesome phone tho

[@misosoppa3279]

@@owencooktechYeah, the photos were out of this world! I had the Nokia Lumia 800, and it took the iPhone more than 10 years to catch up to its picture quality!

[@maheshmurali2697]

Same here I made a lot of people buy Windows phone. 3rd party apps for Instagram, Snapchat were there. I still uses a Lumia as my back up phone the U.I still looks 10 years ahead of the latest Android or iOS versions

[@misosoppa3279]

@@liamloxley1222 X as in any app really

[@mozzjones6943]

@@misosoppa3279 Don't forget the amazing OLED screens! Best ones on a smartphone by far. I would have said "and they did it years before iPhone", But everyone has them years before they did lol

[@anmolsharma4049]

Windows phone somehow managed to be felt more closed system than iPhone.

[@owencooktech]

Lmao that's so accurate

[@barrycooper9451]

And now Outlook is no longer supported; best used as a paper weight. I found out last week when I bought a 950XL. When I bought Windows Phones I almost forgave Microsoft for XP service pack 3.

[@ekinteko]

​@@owencooktech Your video was very inaccurate. Microsoft had a pitiful marketshare in the phone industry before the iPhone. It only looks good because you omitted the juggernaut that was Symbian. You never talked about "corporate espionage" even though you alluded to it in the into. Yes, Steve Elop had a hidden job of devaluing Nokia when he was the CEO for the acquisition by Microsoft. That's what happened. Get over it people. Nokia was the heart and soul of Symbian, and this meant the death of the phone industry. Only to be usurped by Apple and Google. Not defending Nokia, they really dragged their heels. They purposely held back on the processor front for years. Nokia Anne and Belle should have happened in like 2006 and not 2011. The Nokia and Intel partnership was also poisoned, by Intel. Moblin was meh, and Maemo seemed interesting, so MeeGo should have really been decent. It wasn't. They killed the project, and in a desperate last minute coup Nokia managed to release Harmattan. The Nokia N9 was not bad. But up against the likes of the iPhone 4 and Samsung S2, yeah, it was rough. Had they release that against the iPhone 3GS, again we would be having a different conversation. So we have Symbian out, Anne/Belle basically out, MeeGo out, and the whole Nokia corporation dismantled and bought by Microsoft. So what? Well, Microsoft were incompetent and they still are. Yes. They are not good anymore, not like the Xp Days. The Microsoft Kin is the perfect example or epitome of Microsoft. The first version of Windows Phone 7 didn't release with Nokia. It was mostly partnered with HTC, a longtime partner. Samsung also threw them a bone. Nokia joined a year later. So all good, yeah ? Far from it. Remember how I said they were incompetent. It's cause they were. This Windows Phone 7 was built upon WindowsCE. You know the lightweight mobile OS you see on GPS Navigation boxes of the 2005+ era. It was slightly updated and had an overhauled skin. As a developer it was NOT GOOD. The hype was there, but the software was plain bad. With Apple the iPhone was locked down, but their SDK was the golden standard, and easy to build powerful, fast, and fully featured Apps. Google was worse, they were more hands off/more freedom, but you could use various ways to write your Apps, but they were not-native and usually ran a lot less efficient and slower than iOS. Anyways, the problem with Windows Phone WAS that it was Windows Phone. Microsoft decided to undo their problem, and basically start again. What this meant was that the underlying kernel and system changed, and it was on a ported kernel from Windows7 but not full. Microsoft actually preached to developers that Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 would be linked. The problem was that was a lie. If you wanted to develop for the tablet (wART) or desktop side, you couldn't deploy them for phones. At least developing Apps now was better. But there was a problem, Android didn't stay in its v2.4 days, they made a huge leap to v4.0 early on. Same with Apple with iOS v7 soon after. So Microsoft although made a lot of progress, now found themselves years behind still. Also any phone that was on Windows Phone 7 could NOT be updated to Windows Phone 8. This not only ticked off the developers but the OEMs. It also was buggy, with Windows Phone 8.1 fixing a lot of the issues a year later. And it didn't help that Windows 8 was doing so bad on the market, with most enthusiasts staying back on Windows7, and everyone disregarding Windows Tablets due to the abysmal performance and efficiency of Intel processors. Plus the other OEMs felt slighted by Microsoft competing directly against them with the Nokia brand. But now MS were getting disregarded by developers, OEMs, and even chipset manufacturers. It was a vicious cycle. Did Microsoft get their act together? Kind of. The best example is the HP Elite X3. It came out with an efficient yet powerful chipset (QSD 820). It finally had Windows 10 Mobile, which was a proper unified OS with the desktop part. Developing Apps was made better with their latest SDK, and you had tools that would let you deploy to phone, tablet, or desktop. Plus the phone OS didn't suck, didn't have any major bugs, and was pleasant to use. It had Continuum, something revolutionary even for today. But even that failed for several reasons. They had no Apps, none of the basic ones people relied on. None of the top 1000 used ones. Developers were burned twice. OEMs didn't want to compete directly with them. And chipset manufacturers were getting more influential and didn't care about such tiny market share. Microsoft deserved their bad reputation. Their failure was because of the CEO, Board Members, Executives, and basically Leadership. Steve Jobs was far from perfect, but he knew how to make a good product and service, when to call it quits, and when to double down. Microsoft didn't have that vision and creativity. They still don't. They had a golden opportunity, and it slipped through their fingers.

[@Herbert2892]

​@@ekintekowow did u worked in Microsoft at that time or something?

[@m.yr.o.n]

@@ekinteko damn

[@jaijai92]

I worked at the Microsoft Store during the Windows Phone run. I loved my windows phone. The OS was clean, I loved the live tile updates, even the 3rd party apps that they had for social media apps like IG and Snapchat were waaay better than the official apps. They really should've paid others developers to get on their phones. It could've changed the landscape

[@tunkunrunk]

why some tech genius didn't create a software to emulate android on windows phone ?

[@akse]

Yeah.. you know in 2013 Jolla launched a Linux phone that had a SailsfishOS that could emulate Android apps. The company was formed by Ex Nokia guys whom most of worked with the N9 and Meego OS. It never got super popular but they are still around and you can install the OS to some Sony devices etc. They also work with auto industry and their OS is running in some latest Mercedes E class I think.. But anyways I think the industry could have used a third player.. and it wasn't that far. The devices were of good quality and Win10, mobile started to have all the boxes checked except some major apps didn't yet arrive to the platform.

[@tunkunrunk]

@@akse Google and whatsapp undisputed ruling of mobile devices market . their " this device is no longer supported" has brought so many wonderful phones and tablets to premature obsolescence . You have phones from early 2010's powered by a quad core processor , with at least 2GB of Ram and a powerful graphic processor , but they are outdated before you can't upgrade them to newest android version . everything is done to foirce people to buy new phones every years

[@zeriah]

I was working in a retail store for one of the big 4 mobile phone companies in the US when Windows Phone was a thing. I think one of the biggest shames of Windows Phone failing the way it did was the fact that it CRUSHED low end Android phones. A $150 Nokia Lumia Windows phone could run laps around an equally priced Android phone, but it was a hard sell since there were no apps for it.

[@owencooktech]

Yes absolutely. Microsoft has software down. Those phones are so optimized for business tasks.

[@AntennaMan]

I agree! The hardware was killer but the lack of apps was the reason I couldn't switch.

[@CulturedThugPoster]

I have a few Lumia's in my Tech Museum draw. I thought they were great phones and I bought them super cheap used. I never met anyone other than a few corporate users who had them given to use by thier employers. Hell I even got the Band and Band 2 and I never paid more than 1/2 MSRP. Good times, the only thing that they lacked was platform support, no-one ported thier apps, those that did soon dropped out after a couple of years. The Lumia 950XL was the last one I had before switching to LG V20 because of the DSP audio features. What I loved about the Lumia was the ease of switching batteries. No-one does replaceable batteries any more, but at the time I had 2 or 3 batteries and a charging cradle, switching was super easy, it was also the reason I went with the LG v20/30/40 . they had great batteries you could charge externally and took 2 seconds to replace. RiP replaceable batteries.

[@encycl07pedia-]

I'm a big proponent of web apps instead of native apps (unless it's some intensive game or something). There's no need for a native app to order food, for example. Just pull up the website. It's not like you can order without online access anyway. I think the biggest insult was MS disabling access to the app store. I bought a Lumia last year and it's useless. Even IE isn't really supported anymore.

[@PawPauPaul]

I had one and it was ultra fast in comparison to android and iPhone at the time and the keyboard was a dream

[@edzel6843]

I still love the minimalistic magazine-style UI of windows phone. It looks fresh and stylish. I had a windows phone back in 2013 and I loved it, but as everyone else says, the only drawback is the lack of apps.

[@captaincaption]

I am still highly impressed by what that phone did to this day.

[@thefaultinourpizza1513]

me too I always wanted to try it, it was crazy to watch it implode in real time

[@eaappell]

Live Tiles is the reason Windows Phone failed. Unintuitive. Kids couldn't figure it out, in contrast to iOS and Android.

[@thefaultinourpizza1513]

@@eaappell there are a lot of reasons besides live tiles, considering there weren’t much apps too put on those tiles in the first place lol

[@eaappell]

Very true! Though majority of folks I knew were confused by Live Tiles, found they didn't really work like they thought they should. I guess there's a reason they also don't exist on Windows desktop either.

[@leme3503]

KZbin's been recommending more videos within people's interests but with lower views/popularity lately.. This is the first time I didn't even notice. This is solidly put together. Well done.

[@owencooktech]

Thanks dude. That made my day.

[@wjckc79]

All true.

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

Agreed, it feels like 2012 or so KZbin again getting recommendations for "long tail" videos. A suggestion: pay a little more attention to volume levels between cuts. If you're sitting down for some takes and standing up for others, be aware that this can affect the way your voice projects.

[@axllebeer]

Same and I agree! Very well done and I really miss the days of the (semi) mighty 4. Being a windows user and a longtime BlackBerry user, I never got around to d to trying windows phone. I wish I had though but by the time I dropped BlackBerry, I went to google Pixel and now iPhone 13 mini for the last few years. Now I want to grab a high end windows phone and give it a try, just a little too late though.

[@owencooktech]

@@axllebeer yeah that would be sick

[@Hukkahanska]

I remember when some people were laughing at Lumia 1020 because of the large camera. Nowadays almost every phone has a monster camera like that.

[@Mageman17]

I don't think it's as simple as that. Modern phones with their 50 something megapixel cameras don't seem to have the same quality to them as the Lumia flagships.

[@KosHMaraS.]

Some people even in 2024 have Nokia Lumia 1020 only because of it's 48mp RAW capable camera 😁 And android smartphone, because need all the rest 😅

[@Nermeen.]

Microsoft phones were shit but had the best designes EVER !

[@Ondro3103]

Lumia 1020 was the best camera phone i ever had .

[@meurer13daniel]

​@@Mageman17thats because of the Zeiss lenses. I had the midrange Lumia 730 back in the day, and that phone was ahead of its time in some ways. It had an Oled screen and it took some amazing pictures for a midrange released in 2014

[@guruprasad1693]

To be fair, Windows Phone had dark mode before the world even started asking for it.

[@owencooktech]

Yeah. "dark mode" kinda got popular when apple adopted it in mac os in 2018.

[@UltraKryptonian]

Lack of apps killed it. Their Nokia built phones were really rugged and I had a 6” screen device, back when people thought it was crazy to have a big smartphone.

[@NightmareRex6]

yea i HATED that peaople wanted SMALL SMALL SMALL (aka EASILY breakable and cheap!!!!) like seriusly evwryone has spongebobs strignth that acnt even lift a STRAW????!!! i mean they allready got GOLD FISH memorys, so its fitting.

[@ambientNexus]

@@NightmareRex6 This is barely readable, how the hell did you misspell 'strength' that badly? And how does the size of a phone decide what materials it's made of or how it's constructed? A small phone can be extremely durable and/or heavy, just as a large phone can be extremely fragile and/or light.

[@doc2w534]

My Lumia was a beast. Amazing camera, wireless charging, and built tough. Eventually went back to iPhone because I couldn’t do the majority of the tasks my job required to be able to be done on mobile.

[@thomadan000]

Yea I liked my lumia but the fact that you couldn’t get Snapchat on it in like 2016 was just silly. I remember I also had a native KZbin app on it, which was updated at some point to literally REMOVE the native application and turned the “app” into a glorified internet explorer hyperlink to YT.

[@Donprimo01]

Yeah i once was a user for a microsoft phone and i was really frustrated with the lack of apps and flopped.

[@SpudderRail]

It was such a shame popular apps refused to make Windows Phone versions, I loved my Lumia 930's camera, but the lack of apps made it impossible to stay.

[@owencooktech]

Yeah I had the same feeling when I bought mine.

[@fbcpraise]

Microsoft had big bucks- I always thought they should have paid developers to produce the top 50 apps for Windows Phone.

[@sihamhamda47]

My friend used to have one of those, the apps on the store was very scarce. Even the most famous social media, Facebook and Instagram, stayed in "Beta" version in Windows Phone until they finally shut down after Windows Phone reached its EOL

[@GinanjarUtomo]

Google was known to systematically kill the Windows Phone by refusing to make some key Google Apps like Maps or KZbin. Microsoft even tried to make a KZbin client for Windows Phone but Google requested to take it down.

[@wsbchk_]

This was deliberate sabotage by the app vendors. Windows Phone allowed deep integration of data sources into the OS itself via the "Me" hub. It aggregated all your social media feeds, RSS feeds, etc and let you interact with them WITHOUT opening a vendor app. The app vendors HATED this. So they wrote medicore apps to sink the OS. Of course MS could have written those apps themselves but the whole idea behind Windows Phone was that it will not stand in your way to get information at a glance (live tiles) or trap you in apps.

[@hellisio]

i had a couple of Lumia phones and i loved it. The only problem was the lack of apps and third party support. But other than that, it was very well designed and built, had a UI design i really loved and was way cheaper than the competition at the time. I wish they had lasted longer.

[@owencooktech]

Yeah very competitive just not popular enough to support all the good apps

[@Ryotsu2112]

I had a blue Lumia. The build quality was meh. What mainly pissed me off was the janky volume buttons rattling when the phone vibrated. I ditched it a year later and got a Galaxy, which I ditched a year later when I went back to iPhone. By this time the iPhone was making bigger screens, which was all I wanted when I left. I liked the idea of live tiles on the windows phone, but it was destined for failure and I'm glad I got out quick.

[@00Mindi00]

These phones and the OS were SO GOOD. WP was LEAPS ahead of anything at the time, it had so much potential was so original and innovative. I miss it a LOT.

[@captaincaption]

I miss it a LOT lot.

[@Music-w4y]

Windows Phone's people hub was just amazing. It was so easy to update social media. And Zune music was just plain awesome. Microsoft failed. not Windows Phone.

[@twelvezeros]

I'll never get over this. Windows phone was my first choice for the new era or smartphones (2009-onward) and i was holding on until 2016 when i was forced to switch. Still my favourite user experience

[@agk8361]

this. I had Lumia and it was maybe my best smartphone ever. It provided me better user xp then any iPhone ever did. Such a sad story.

[@KofolaDealer]

I was holding on until two weeks ago

[@MilanchoSt]

I had a windows phone, and it was by far the best phone i ever had, never let me down,and served me well for good 7 years .

[@owencooktech]

Rad dude. Theyre awesome. i just wished mine worked.

[@luisebiosca4476]

@@owencooktech im pretty sure that you can still sideload apps to those, they wont be up to date ofc, but if you find the appx packages somewhere, they can be installed, with some work tho. :P

[@elixier33]

I gave mine to the dump.

[@jeffrbake]

I loved mine as well. Fantastic phone.

[@nemesis4035]

I had one too for a few months. Loved it, except its lack of apps. WhatsApp was VERY different and Facebook/Instagram worked okay

[@absolute_zer0729]

I still miss windows phones. If existed today, windows phone would be my daily driver.

[@bigrod359]

Bs they were horrible

[@absolute_zer0729]

@@bigrod359 The problem was with their app market. I think they'd have become more liberal about this issue if existed today. Other than that, Windows mobile felt more optimized than iOS and android.

[@Surooh333]

i had one of those as a teen, it performed incredibly well, but the app support made me feel like i was stuck on a deserted island

[@Sarandub]

What do you mean "looks weird"?.. this is the most beautiful mobile OS still..

[@amaldev4150]

Can't agree more to this comment

[@NkosanaMakhubele]

No it was awful

[@dixtr3m3r]

@@NkosanaMakhubele lolz :))

[@SuperXzm]

@@NkosanaMakhubele Yo momz gay

[@NkosanaMakhubele]

@@SuperXzm still an awful OS that's why it's failed😁

[@LuigiL75]

I was slinging phones back when that Windows Nokia phone dropped and that thing was a BEAST with no fangs...great phone, ZERO apps!!!

[@norkshit]

i like the small touch of playing newer windows startup sounds for each chapter.

[@owencooktech]

Thanks dude. Somebody said I should play the blue death screen at the end. 😅

[@soyboi8440]

The windows 7 one is so iconic 🤧

[@Jafin89]

I had two Windows phones back in the day, and honestly part of the reason I liked Windows Phone so much was precisely because it lacked a lot of the popular apps that iPhone and Android had. I had had an iPhone 4 previous to getting my first Windows Phone and it was really refreshing to switch to a phone that wasn't constantly hitting me with notifications and that I could actually put down for a while without feeling like I was missing out on something. I'm an Android guy now, but Windows Phone as a platform will always hold a place in my heart.

[@gamefox120]

Same

[@philiporeillycork]

I remember Microsoft giving away free Windows Phone to IT professionals as I got one and used it for a while. They also did a fire sale on their surface tablets around that time for students/academics that was less than half price and I got one of them free too. Biggest issue after the lack of apps was that you couldn’t upgrade from V7 to V8 and your recently purchased device was made obsolete

[@TalesOfWar]

I recall this. I also recall that iPhones had better Active Directory support out of the box than Windows Phones did so our company went with iPhones for that reason lol. Kind of ironic. But then Macs, iPhones and iPads also have native support to read Office files at the OS level while Windows doesn't.

[@akse]

Win7 was total crap.. thats why many Nokia users hated the whole Microsoft deal. It lacked so many basic things that Symbian had for a decade.. Win8 was decent but 10 was really where all was starting to work as they should.. but then it ended..

[@ansonlee3714]

Man seeing that yellow Lumia with the huge camera is uber nostalgic, brings me back. Always thought the UI looked slick, but had no doubt they would eventually fizzle out and die.

[@minhduong1484]

Couple of points. You were completely right about Microsoft being bad at hardware even when it came to the Xbox as the Xbox 360 red ring of death cost them $1B to fix alone. Second one of the main reasons the Windows Phone had few developers was that Microsoft poorly managed development for their phone OS. While Windows CE had a lot developers, as Microsoft transitioned towards from CE to Windows Phone, every new version of the OS required a major rewrite for developers. By the time of the Windows Phone, few developers wanted to touch it as they felt burned. If anything they would wait until the OS was stabilized. However when phones using Windows Phone 7 OS could not use newer Windows Phone 8 OS, that burned consumers as well as developers. With less interest from both developers and consumers, it was over for the product.

[@reggiebenes2916]

By the end, the Windows phone was drastically better than anything else. They should have stuck with it, but Satya was obviously ready to move on, and he could rightly blame it all on Balmer. The Lumia 650 was definitely the best phone I've ever owned, and now I;m stuck with the choice between a rectangular slab of Apple glass or rectangular slab of Samsung glass. So exciting I don't know whether to $hit or go blind, so I guess I'll close one eye and fart.

[@owencooktech]

LMAO. I feel the same way. Honestly, that's why I switched to Google pixel. It's pretty fun

[@z3dar]

To this day I still use 'Square Home' launcher app for my android phone to get it closer to the glorious Lumia Windows UI: compact, information dense, clear, customisable, perfect. Also Lumia 1020 camera was simply brilliant, probably still better than any current flagship AI-enchanced 10-lens supercameras.

[@jz6367]

I was so happy to find Square Home cause I love that look

[@tanbir11]

i had that yellow one, the biggest reason it was trash was the lack of 3rd party application support (No banking application, no music apart microsoft, no social media etc). Phone functioned very well to what was available and the battery life was years ahead of its time.

[@jamesmichaels4979]

Let's be honest. Nobody around at the time saw the Windows phone and went "I want that one!" It's why it was so bad

[@Profi06]

This felt like a video from a professional youtube channel.

[@owencooktech]

Thanks dude! Y'all are making my day

[@Snakeplisskin440]

@@owencooktech yeah I wanted to say this too! I was expecting to see 75k+ Subscribers. I'm subscribing. I like these little techinfo videos. I follow TechnologyConnections for that reason. Like "How a microwave works". I wasn't that curious but since you made the effort sure, I'll watch a 45 minute video on microwaves xD

[@zamontajistite]

Actually MS biggest problem was not APPS but focusing on business and US market. Europe, South America and Africa had great sales (more than iphone and head to head with android). And while Google didnt want to port their apps they were many alternatives in store even much better than official apps. As someone who used WP a lot i never missed an app. KZbin,instagram,games as many as you want was all there and most usually came as soon as android or just a month or two delay. Gameloft titles for example were coming same day as Android (updates included), big 3d games like World Of Tanks were available too almost at the same time. As i said their fail was focussing on business instead of actual consumers and the app thing is a big myth created by youtubers who never bothered using the phone for more than 2 hours....Overall Great summary though :) Its crazy that in 2012 WP had wireless charging, AoD, OIS on camera and many more stuff that just other OEMs got in past 2-3years

[@owencooktech]

Absolutely. Great points, glad you enjoyed.

[@gteixeira]

I used KZbin on the mobile browser on Windows Phone 8 and it was as good as the native app on Android.

[@RomanBellicTaxi]

Yeah. There were alternatives to lots of stuff. Instagram? There was 6tag. KZbin pulled out in a fiasco? Ok, there's MyTube, even better than the original YT app. Oh, Instagram is officially supported now. Welp, 6tag is still better. So, yeah, as a latin american, I missed support as a "non-US regular user". Granted my beautiful Lumia 735 fell too many times to keep working (and actually still works, just need screen replacement), but I'd keep it until the stores stopped. But I had to come back to android anyway...

[@ThePortuguesePlayer]

All of those hardware features are not exactly because of Microsoft, but because of Nokia. This whole deal is a immense tragedy because it killed the two best mobile OS makers for me in a single blow. Nokia and Microsoft. Of all things, Nokia was the one I least wanted them to buy. It was the worst possible outcome. Microsoft should have made their OS "free" like Android, Nokia should have made Maemo, their Debian Linux based OS, their main OS rather than that Belle crap that I didn't even know where they wanted to go with it since it was just a completely ruined version of Symbian. I don't know how these two companies failed this hard, but it resulted in worst phone market for the consumer we could have asked for.

[@noko1877]

@@ThePortuguesePlayer My dad used to work in Nokia and he told that Nokia invented touch screens but investors/managers didint believe to that tecnology at the time i mean 2000s and Nokia couldve had huge jump over development. Nokia sold its nokia brand and asha brand for 5.44 bil euros. Ceo of Nokia made great deal while making themself good amount of money. They made deal that Nokia cannot use nokia braning on their own phones from 2013-2015 but in that time nokia started new line developing budget friendly clean android phones. Theres btw lil news article about this touch screen thing like how the idea got crushed and later realized how it could changed smartphone industry

[@axetue]

You've raised quite valid points here. Another blunder that Microsoft did was to redo their UI on Windows desktop to match the UI on Windows phones which was mostly touch based. This perhaps ruined Windows 8 experience and I do believe this gave an opportunity for Mac OS and Chrome OS (new at that time) to grow. But overall great video. 🙂

[@axetue]

BTW, I am a new video creator myself and create similar tech-focused explainer style videos. Appreciate the effort you're putting in building your channel. Wish you success👏

[@owencooktech]

Yeah windows 8 was built around the phone. Not a great decision if you don't have a touchscreen laptop. Similar to what they're doing with vr and windows 11/12 now.

[@TheRealSpeedWolf]

Yeah, I forgot about Windows 8. It already left a bad taste for many people back then. I also remember my friend being reluctant to get the Windows phone because of that bad experience with Windows 8 screwing up the desktop when it was actually designed for touch screens. Windows 8 was a good operating system if you had a touch screen, but the switch between the desktop and the screen was so poorly executed that it ruined the experience for everyone. Whose bright idea was it to make people relearn something that had worked for 3 decades, and assume everyone would switch to a touch screen without the start menu on a desktop with multiple square windows.

I wouldn't call it a blunder... Ipad was picking up as next computing revolution, and touchscreens becoming a thing in portables. in the end, it just didn't pick up because they bett everything on ARM only that was massively underpowered... but it was no blunder. it offered continuity... something that no one was (and still isn't) looking for. :D... and today... look at apple... ARM everywhere.

[@Cakebattered]

The tech media looked at the iPad and proclaimed touch as the new UI paradigm, only to crap on an actual desktop touch based OS. If you had a touchscreen PC, Windows 8 was great.

[@Greenfield-yf1wh]

I was a mobile phone dealer who studied computer science & electrical engineering at the time. I heard a lot people saying that the phone failed because the ecosystem didn't support many 'killer' apps, but I beg to differ - Windows Phone failed because it didn't offer freedom much as Android to users, yet it wasn't secure as iOS for business persons who looked for an alternative secure mobile plaform to iPhone when Blackberry practically went bust.

[@adrianwerner1982]

When Windows Phone died the excitement about mobile devices died with it. All of the modern ones are essentially the same - huge phablets with similiar design an almost identical OS. Aside from the foldable craze, which was shortlived. I still keep old Lumia 800 (my favorite looking smartophone of all time) just as audiobook player and everytime I take this for a spin and I look at this little beauty, where OS and hardware worked together in perfect harmony, I get a little sad thinking how much better mobile would be if WP stuck around.

[@WorldwideHypercars]

Yellow Nokia Lumia 1020 customer here! I was 14 when I got it when I couldve chosen any other iphone or android. I absolutely loved it and the camera at the time as crazy! One of my best phone pics to this date was taken on the 1020. It didnt have a fully functioning instagram at the time but I just absolutely loved the design

[@m.2383]

Honestly windows phone 8.1 was great. Windows phone 7 was awful and locked down which made it unusable. And then windows 10 mobile was a clusterfuck again, not that it mattered as they discontinued the whole thing just as they were starting to see growth. They even had solutions to the app gap with Project Islandwood and Project A.... something. Basically a way to run iOS and Android apps on windows phone.

[@owencooktech]

Yeah it got to the point where they had lost so much money. It was impossible to break even so they had to shut it down

[@davecollins6122]

I really liked Windows 10 phone, I held onto my 950 XL for years. IMO, they should have spent the money on buying Nokia to pay developers to create apps.

[@cupofdirtfordinner]

This is a much better video than a lot of other similar mini-docs ive seen popping up! Well researched and frequently showing clips from important moments in the story, this is excellent. Keep it up!

[@PaulsComputerEmp]

Lets not forget about windows mobile(Pocket PC 2000/CE), MANY HTC and HP devices/ PDAs that ran that OS and it was closed before they released windows phone, this was massive mistake LOADS of companies used these devices, at this point many including myself switched to Android devices after paying for software GPS etc you could no longer use, Basically they tried to strong arm customers to switch from (windows mobile) to (windows phone) by closing the windows mobile store so it would be like trying to use windows phone as it is is now.

[@sarcasticlollipop]

This channel is going to blow up soon, I can feel it. Keep delivering well researched quality content and you’ll go far. Good luck 👍

[@redshot17]

I owned a couple Windows Phones, the 520, 640 and 950XL, and I really loved the way the OS felt, it was a refreshing departure from the boring homescreens of iPhones and Androids (at the time). I kept my 950XL for as long as I could, but the app support started to drop out in 2016 and I had to move on. I still have the 640 and the 950XL, but now they're only limited to the stock apps, since the Store has stopped working on both, and many developers have pulled their apps, so I can't even download old versions that were previously working.

[@akse]

I still have one 735 and my son used to play some old Angry Birds game up to last year with it.. on Android the game is much different since it has updated a lot.

[@peterbezak5204]

I still remember getting bombarded with Windows phone ads back in the day. It was always about some family that switched to windows phone and was really satisfied with it.

[@me7229]

Satya Nadella said he did regret not keeping windows phone going recently. It's just unfortunate there isn't more options on operating systems.

[@owencooktech]

Oh dang, I missed that quote in my research. Thanks!

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

Windows Phone proved that there wasn’t room for a third system and I’m glad it’s dead. It wasn’t awful operating system compared to android and iOS.

[@tiagobelo4965]

​@@Adamtendo_player_1 there's always room for another, android and IOS could still do with some competition, much like how windows and mac OS do in the pc space

[@knerduno5942]

There is more options now via Linux Mobile.

[@haydenmcafee8739]

I love Windows Phone and I love that this video is exploring some of its history. I joined the Windows Phone team in 2014 just in time to see it peak and start to circle the drain. Just a couple of nitpicks: - @6:00, The app gap was very real and I agree with the principle of the argument. However at the time of WP7 in ~2010 Google Drive didn't exist, Instagram was in its infancy, and LinkedIn wouldn't be acquired by Microsoft for another 5+ years. GMail *was* actually supported because Google supported Microsoft ActiveSync at the time. - @8:00, the Lumia 920 and 1020 shown did not have 'swappable' covers without significant effort, and the batteries were not accessible without tools. Replaceable battery was a fairly common feature at the time and was actually on the way out around this era ~2013. Thanks for the great video!

[@RobertSimmonsAirship]

Should’ve brought up that Kin was a result of MS buying Danger who made the Sidekick / Hiptop which were the most popular device for consumers, especially young adults, pre-iPhone. It has aol built in. Some of my colleagues still preferred the sidekick over early iPhones

[@Rio_Seco]

Loved my Lumia Phone and the Windows UI.

[@smurftums]

Purchased one of the early Windows phones. After several years of use I sold it to a friend. It lasted 10 years before failing. I miss it.

[@jasonmelo9379]

Another big part of it was that Google wasn't putting its native apps in the Microsoft store. That's why I finally got rid of my windows phone.

[@owencooktech]

Yeah I said that.

[@jasonmelo9379]

@@owencooktech I know, I commented before I got to that part of the video lol

[@Dave102693]

And Google will kill the Vision Pro with the anti competitive actions. I think that the EU needs to go down hard on Alphabet asap.

[@jasonmelo9379]

@@Dave102693 well that's going to be a tough fight, Google against Apple. But that's a pretty niche product anyway. I mean it's freaking 3,500!

[@alexanderschultz9803]

This is the first video of yours I’ve seen so wanted to say great job - really enjoyed it and I’ve subscribed. Looking forward to what’s next

[@nick-marshall-photography]

My first smartphone was a Windows phone because I was an idiot as a teenager and I thought it was cool that my phone would have Xbox integration. Shit was basically a paperweight with how little support it had lmao

[@free_hugs_4011]

I really think my old windows phone had a more accurate "slide to type" than my newer Android phone.

[@owencooktech]

Yeah the keyboard is insane!

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

Absolutely not android like the pixel 8 for Me windows phone was as dumb as Siri is for the iPhone yeah I’m talking about Cortana being dumb.

[@smoguli]

My windows phone had the best predictive keyboard I’ve ever used. Sometimes I just had to choose the suggested words without having to type. Compared to that my iPhone 13 suggestions are completely useless.

[@Dan_Yerlll]

Your channel is going to explode man! Glad to be here at the beginning

[@chasejohnson375]

Looking back on the email argument and remembering all of the “sent from my iPhone” emails from my bosses, I had to giggle. Hindsight really is 20/20 😭

[@growtocycle6992]

I hate how phone emails airways show "from Android"or "from IPhone" 😂

[@hawaiianpunch5432]

In my opinion, there was not enough research that went into this video. There were way more significant reasons why Windows Phone failed than just them charging developers. For instance, everybody hated Microsoft then. Users hated MS and rejected Windows Phones, Windows 8, Xbox One, and Zune. Linux supporters were bashing Microsoft non-stop, and same with Apple fanboys. Developers hated that Microsoft kept rebooting the phone OS. Even the OS philosophy was flawed as Microsoft wanted to their own app to be the hub for apps that were all the same type. For example, they wanted the music hub to be able to work with all services. Problem was each service would rather have their own dedicated app. But to the typical user, there was no way they would ever buy a phone that did not support KZbin and Gmail as Google declined to release any app for Windows Phone.

[@rouxenophobe]

Agree, there was a lot more to the story. If I recall correctly one of the biggest Windows Phone updates (8 to 10 I think), broke backwards compatibility and thus everybody with a Windows 8 phone was cut out of the ecosystem.

[@AkshitaMudgal211]

I loved my Lumia 720 and somehow it still has the best camera till date. It's a shame that the world didn't realize it's value.

[@AntennaMan]

This video was very well put together especially for a smaller channel (that will grow quickly if you keep it up). I recall considering a Windows phone in college. The specs were great but the lack of popular apps was a deal breaker for me. I got my first Android smartphone in 2011 and never looked back.

[@owencooktech]

Thanks dude. Yeah I'm Android from iOS 1 year ago. Never looked back either. I would consider windows if it was still around.

[@ju6811]

What??? I read the comments and saw how many people pointed out the content's quality vs channel size. I scrolled up and saw the channel have less than 4K subs. Absolutely shocking. This genuinely felt like a video you'd usually across on a 5M+ subs channel. Looking forward to more of such content.

[@owencooktech]

Thanks dude! My next video is a deep dive into WRC and the tech that makes it so cool. Coming by Feb 15th.

[@TradieTrev]

Because this video has been done before by other creators, the algorithm just picked his video up ;)

[@owencooktech]

@@TradieTrev don't act like my hard work was "the algorithm". That's not how KZbin works. You are the algorithm not some random line of code. If you undermine my dedication to story, don't do it in my comments

[@TradieTrev]

@@owencooktech Okay, thanks the love heart

[@craig3916]

Too much. Wether he b right or left just take it on the chin mate.

[@mouldyvinegar5665]

This brought back memories, the nokia lumia was my first smartphone. I remember it getting thrown at a wall (because the person who tried to pass the phone to me couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a nuke), it breaking apart into all its pieces, putting it back together and realising that there wasn't a single scratch. It was a phenomenally built phone, but the software support was terrible. It did get quite a bit better in its final few days so I was quite sad when it finally died. After I got the iPhone SE I realised that the OS was just so much better than iOS, and I still miss its features (although this may be more that iOS sorely lacks features).

[@owencooktech]

Yeah dude. The design goes crazy and late windows phone 8 was peak (as I was told throughout my research)

[@sophiagonzales8974]

Same buddy except I got iPhone SE like two years later and I realize that my Nokia X was way better with software the only thing that’s like killing it was apps when I was in a survival club at school everyone had apps and my Nokia x was hit/miss with compas

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

@@sophiagonzales8974Windows Phone was shit next to iOS both of you are crazy to think Windows Phone was close to being on the same level as iOS, WP was clunky to use and I struggle to see why people love it, WP was absolutely trash and I had a Lumia 535 and hated it and swapped it for crack when I was at the height of my addiction.

[@aether6098]

just subbed loved the effort you put into this video it is really informative and nostalgic makes me remember of when the Nokia Lumia came out in our region andriod had fun candy names like the kitkat,lolipop etc keep making more videos like this bro

[@Trajan32]

A HTC HD 7 was my first 'smart' phone and it was a windows device. I really liked the tiles system and thought it was promising. However its reliability was so poor, my phone company replaced it for me. I spent most of the time longing for the apps that the iPhone had. Once my contract was up, I switched and never looked back. Nice seeing a video explaining some of the problems it had, good work.

[@pRoToCoL827]

i legit thought this was one of those documentary channels with 1M+ subscribers until i came to the comment section. amazing content. Definitely you deserve more views and subs. im your 866th subscriber.

[@owencooktech]

Thanks dude! My next videos gonna be even better.

[@Hapnikupuudus]

​@@owencooktecheven i am gonna sub

[@Vromiaris778]

My first modern “smartphone” was a Windows phone and I actually really liked it! What killed it for me, though, was a massive memory flaw that could not be resolved making it pretty useless after abouty a year. I then switched to the iPhone.

[@TheRealSpeedWolf]

I had the Nokia Lumia, which was actually a very good phone. It was well-designed, and the software worked very well with no slowdown, especially for a phone in a similar price range at the time. The biggest problem I had with it was the software, which was very lacking when it came to third-party support. In the end, I switched to an Android phone for that very reason.

[@owencooktech]

Yeah exactly. Android is almost always the way to go.

[@ascelot]

It was lacking even for first party support. MS introduced office to Android before it went on Windows phone

[@TheRealSpeedWolf]

@@ascelot I wasn’t happy because I was unable to use certain media players for music and videos, as well as many video games that I wanted to play on the device. The compatibility wasn’t very clear. For example, it was hit and miss whether something could work on Windows 8 or on the phone itself, if I remember correctly.

[@ascelot]

@@TheRealSpeedWolf Had the 920, remember when they promised windows 10 for the device then redacted it. Felt, that the OS was always playing catchup for basic functionality which both IOS and android had.

[@Bronxguyanese]

Windows phone was ahead of its time.

[@depuxtheboi]

trevor’s phone irl

[@Gwynevere_]

I can't wait for your channel to blow up. Keep at it man you have a bright future for sure.

[@OliourRahmanDigonto]

Yeah, this video looks very professional

[@Gwynevere_]

@OliourRahmanDigonto exactly, and for a channel with

[@owencooktech]

Thanks guys. I'm glad you enjoyed.

[@mick1467]

so glad you mentioned the keyboard, that thing was PERFECT

[@aldebaran_]

Would have been interesting to see how Windows Phone OS looked like today. Maybe something close to how it looked with Surface Duo with a single screen. A shame it crashed and burned. I loved my HTC 7 Mozart, Nokia Lumia 720 and 820 though the lack of apps and games eventually drove me to Android

[@owencooktech]

Yeah dude that would be sick to see. I'll do a follow up if they ever do that.

[@user-dn9vd9xg9p]

Retail stores also were pushing the high commission apple phones. Windows did not do a great job of marketing. But I bought Windows phone and best phone ever had. The camera exceeded my expectations and I stopped using my Canon camera. Bring it back!

[@thoughtstorn854]

Damn still remember my htc windows phone it was my favorite back then.

[@duket1449]

I had a windows phone and was online surfing while everybody else was still on their flip phones, before iPhones and Android were even out. What a waste of head start and a massive missed opportunity!

[@owencooktech]

No kidding. Not to make you feel old, but i was born in 07 so i never got to experience windows CE, but it sounds Sick.

[@leonhre]

Nice video! I loved my Windows Phone I had back then. The OS was truely ahead of it's time. 2:40 But generally calling Microsoft being "very good at software" is debatable I guess. 😂

[@owencooktech]

Yeah well I'm talking about Bill Gates Microsoft. He and Paul Allen really pushed the envelope in terms of software.

[@jerrybandy3827]

Everyone that I knew that had a Windows Phone (including me) loved it and was sad to see it go. It has some really unique innovations and features that took years to make it to Android and Apple. GMail was pretty easy to access but the lack of a Google sponsored KZbin app really killed it. Microsoft even created and published their own KZbin app in their store but Google made them remove it. Google didn't want the competition.

[@m_a_s6069]

I loved the windows-phone phones I had, and I still use my Zune. And writing apps for Windows Phone was so easy.

[@jaynecobb5774]

Steve made that knife fight culture....was so good to see him go.

[@jonathangmallender]

I still have Nokia Lumia 820. It's a beautifully crafted phone, from 2013. It has wireless charging, and after all this time the battery still lasts! The format, sound, layout were absolutely perfect! If only companies had made apps for it, it would have been a winner. Those live tiles are still an amazing concept.

[@plakativ_b]

You were also able to use it with regular gloves during winter.

[@rg975]

I remember when those Nokia windows phones came out. Really wanted one back then, but the lack of software ultimately killed it for a lot of people, including me.

[@owencooktech]

Yeah fair enough.

[@JadesMonologue]

I loved my windows phone, it was great.

[@owencooktech]

Yeah dude. I love mine, and would use it if the internet and app store still worked.

[@ryanhealey5167]

My dad used to have a Windows phone. He only got it because he worked at Microsoft and he actually liked it surprisingly.

[@user-dn9vd9xg9p]

When companies run production fast to beat competitors in the market, it will shut down a consumer to that brand overnite and they will fail. Consumers remember this and it takes years to get the consumer to trust a product again. Common sense and it doesn't take a PhD or 7 digit salary to figure this out. Yep run a pilot project fast just to beat the competitor in the market and distribute crap... always happens. Windows should have marketed it better and took their time with production and timing. They could have been very successful with this. I loved my Windows phone and I would buy another one if available.

[@dragonfly8568]

I love the use of windows start themes for the transitions although you missed the opportunity to end the video with the blue screen of death

[@owencooktech]

Oh. Yeah. That's funny. Thanks for noticing though. I was like "how do I convey the passage of time"

[@Kernfederate]

I had a Nokia Lumia 920 and 640 XL, and I loved them! I swear it felt way more streamlined than Apple or Android today, and Apple's recent updates have started modeling some of the aspects of Windows Phones, including the app list on the right. The Lumia 920 was built like an absolute tank, and the size of the 640 XL was way ahead of its time. I find myself trying to imitate the layout of my Windows Phone on my iPhone now without even realizing it. This is coming from someone who absolutely despises Microsoft and Microsoft products, too.

[@hobbit125]

I had a Windows Phone. I can assure you that it was definitely never considered "the future of mobile computing."

[@TalesOfWar]

Not outside of Redmond at least. Remember the "funeral" they had for the iPhone?

[@Drewcardello]

The mircosoft kin looked like it belonged in 2005, not 2010.

[@MicrosoftHatesGreg]

Fantastic video, I referenced this video and linked to it in the description of my latest video on Microsoft Fabric.

[@giovanni4151]

bro buy yourself a better microphone

[@BenjiSBRK]

I had several Windows Phones and I loved them. I love the tiles philosophy, and most of all, I loved the camera and microphones on the Nokia devices. I still use a Lumia 930 at concerts to film videos, because the sound comes up so clean, even compared to modern smartphones.

[@thebuggerdev]

8:08 "you could remove the battery without any tools" - is this a sarcasm? It was standard at this time, later it stopped being a standard

[@owencooktech]

Samsung and Apple phones both required tools. Then and now. Maybe in like niche Android phones but their main competitors weren't doing it.

[@thebuggerdev]

@@owencooktech LG had removable batteries

[@owencooktech]

@@thebuggerdev ah. I didn't know that.

[@ravirazrathod]

I still miss my windows phone

[@jamespurs]

First video I have watched of yours, good sound mixing (just need to check sound levels) and audio quality. Great video and research. Great luck for the future!

[@superhavi]

Fun fact: At it's lauch in 2015, the Nokia Lumia 640 actually outsold the iPhone in parts of Europe. I bought one directly and used it intul December 2019 when WhatsApp stopped working. I still have it and most of Microsofts own Apps still work flawlessly. The best thing about Windows Phone were the active tiles, the notification center and the live images. Those are all concepts which were later copied by iOS and Android.

[@Twikkilol]

I love how one CEO got so many products wrong, potentially costing Microsoft many billions of dollars in lost revenue.

[@novacolonel5287]

My first smartphone was a Lumia 920 and I absolutely loved it. Great camera, acceptable battery life, awesome design and by god the UI was the best. Someday it was stolen, then I got the 925 which was even more awesome until it one day bricked on me. I miss it greatly.

[@zyrge]

It’s so weird the windows phone failed to me, mainly because when I was in school, everyone had one, and then high school came, the iPhone 4/5 was a hit, everyone had an iphone. It was like a blink and you’ll miss it type of deal

[@theformerkaiser9391]

Fun Fact: there were 3 WP7 devices with a physical keyboard, the LG Quantum, HTC 7 Pro, and Dell Venue Pro

[@owencooktech]

That's awesome! Can't believe I missed that!

[@whiteRiceSupremacist]

I was a cross platform mobile developer. It was troublesome enough to consider developing for iOS and Android with one code base, and with Windows it made a project difficult. I’m now a dedicated iOS app developer for this sole reason.

[@vinnieravioli4653]

Hey man this was really well done! I subscribed

[@CasperEgas]

I really liked them. Shame it didn't work out.

[@thelorax700]

New to the channel, this was your first video I’ve seen, really awesome man. I feel like you should have a lot more subscribers if this is the kind of content you push out regularly. I’ve seen a few videos of the windows phone recently, and this one was by far the best well explained breakdown of the chain of events. Really awesome content, hope to see more of you in my feed! Subscribed!

[@jsrocker248]

First time passing through your channel and gotta say, you really have a soothing voice, especially as an informative tech user, really liking the approach as well. Gained a sub.