Are you thinking what we’re thinking?
WE’VE BEEN getting some strange voicemail messages at the INQ office. Always after we’ve gone home, always the voice is muffled. Always the number is blocked.
The latest one just said “Windows Phone 8.1 Store. Do something.” followed by what sounded like someone munching on a mouthful of Wotsits.
(But… surely not?)
We did a bit of digging (after all, we are journalists) and found that, what the caller was referring to was the fact that from 16 December, Windows Phone 8.1 will lose access to the Microsoft Store, effectively killing the whole WP era once and for all.
Microsoft explained this in a blog, which we assume our caller must have read: “There may be some degradation in-app functionality going forward as updates are no longer available via the Store … Reinstallation of apps will no longer be possible. If a user removes an app from the phone it will not be possible for such apps to be restored”.
(I mean… we saw the note…. it doesn’t make sense?)
There are still some phones – Lumia branded handsets (ex-Nokia) that can still be updated to Windows 10 Mobile. Even though that has reached end-of-support too, the servers are still active if you’ve been straggling and need to eke out your Windows Phone experience even longer, which let’s face it, is nobody, really, but the option is there.
(Maybe he faked it… we never officially saw him, we just assumed…?)
Of course, the Microsoft Store isn’t going anywhere – it was set up at a time when Redmond was planning to have everything working on a single platform. It’s the same one you probably use in Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 for desktop.
Come to think of it, there was a package delivered a few months ago with just a crayon drawing on House of Commons notepaper with “My Windows Phone Idea” and weird orange dust. But… no… we’re imagining it… µ