End of an Era: Microsoft Kills Support for Windows Phone 8.1 After Three Years Since Its Introduction

Redmond giant, Microsoft has announced that it’s going to end the support for Windows Phone 8.1 today after more than three years since the company first introduced the update. One has to admit the fact that Windows Phone OS unofficially died last year when the company said they’re not going to launch Windows Phone OS-powered smartphones anymore.

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And today, the news was announced by Microsoft. That said, there are millions of Windows Phone smartphones still alive across the world, and the major chunk of them are running either the Windows Phone 7 or Windows Phone 8 or Windows Phone 8.1 platform. A report recently said that only 20 percent of Windows 10 Mobile OS users at the moment. And Microsoft also announced that they’re not going to release the Windows 10 Mobile OS to most of the Lumia handsets.

To recall, the Windows Phone 8.1 update was a significant upgrade to the Windows Phone platform, which gave users the first sight to digital assistant Cortona. The update also introduced notification center and also brought a major overhaul to the platform.

Microsoft’s aim to capture smartphone market didn’t go according to the plan, thanks to the user-friendly Android and iOS platforms, which has a market share of around 90 percent combined. Moreover, 99.6 percent of handsets releasing these days are running Android or iOS.

That being said, to increase the market share, Microsoft acquired Finnish brand Nokia and even released ‘Microsoft Lumia’ handsets, which did not help either. Eventually, Microsoft sold the Nokia branding to HMD Global.

Microsoft has ended the support for Windows Phone 8.1 OS, however, the company still has to release software updates for Windows 10 Mobile OS. But don’t expect the company to include any new features. Rumours are rife that Microsoft has divided its software department into a ‘feature2’ branch, which will maintain the operating system until 2018 or to be precise until the support ends.