Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows 10 Mobile

Microsoft is ditching its Windows 10 Mobile software platform, a year after the tech giant shut down its smartphone hardware division.

Joe Belfiore, Microsoft’s vice president of Windows, told fans on Twitter that “building new features [and hardware]” are not the company’s focus at the moment.

He did, however, say the firm would continue to support the platform by launching new security updates and fixing software bugs.

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Microsoft’s smartphone platform has been “dead for more than a year”, says The Verge, but the firm has “never officially admitted it before”.

The company “gutted its phone business last year”, the website says, which resulted in “thousands of job cuts”.

The news of Windows 10 Mobile’s downfall could be down to the platform’s small “volume of users”, tweeted Belfiore, which prevented “most” third-party tech firms from investing in it.

But Engadget argues that the tech firm’s “slowness in responding to Apple and Google” may have been a factor in the demise of Windows 10 Mobile, along with an “inconsistent hardware strategy”.

Nevertheless, ZDNet says Microsoft will still be involved in the smartphone industry, as it plans to bring its Edge web browser – which is currently only available for computers running Windows 10 – to Apple iOS and Google Android devices.

The web browser allows users to share websites between their smartphone and desktop computer, the site says, as well as photos, apps and files.