In an interview with the Verge, Microsoft’s director of phone marketing, Neil Broadley, has stated that there will be no new high-end Lumias until Windows 10 is deemed ‘ready’.
It has been no secret recently that Microsoft doesn’t exactly consider the high end of the smartphone market to be high-priority at the moment. Releasing low-end device after low-end device, such as the 640 or the 640 XL, the Lumia brand has become distinctly low-end in its associations as well as its aspirations. Indeed, this is something that some feel rather strongly about.
That this is the case however is not due to deliberate malice on Microsoft’s part; this is no cack-handed attempt to devalue the Lumia name. Instead it is a matter of priorities, and with the entire future of the firm riding on the success of Windows 10, all focus has been diverted to its success.
As such, phones, though important, have taken a back seat. Expected to debut in the second-half of 2015, all flagship class devices will follow suit, and will have a prominent role to play in the promotion of the software to the public.
For the moment however, users will have to continue to wait patiently for the future to deliver something truly jaw-dropping. Microsoft knows that the stakes are incredibly high, the chances that it is taking will decide whether it will be able to maintain a position among the software elite in what has become an increasingly hostile market.
As Windows Phone continues to struggle, despite gains in the app store and increased device shipments globally, the question must be asked: will it be enough? Many resources have been spent, as has much time been invested, in the success of Windows Phone, and yet still nothing has worked. Will Windows 10 be enough?
What do you believe the future of Windows Phone holds? Let us know in the comments below.
