Microsoft Has Officially Pulled The Plug On Windows Phone 8.1 Support

Well, this was bound to happen some time soon.

Today, Microsoft has killed off support for Windows Phone 8.1, thus bringing to a close on an expensive endeavour the company undertook on the smartphone industry.

As shown on the support page, Microsoft will stop supporting Windows Phone 8.1, which means that there will be “no security updates, non-security updates, free or paid assisted support or online technical content updates.”

Windows Phone 8.1 was a relatively huge update to the ecosystem and made the smartphones running the OS a bit competitive in the market. It brought about a new Start Screen, introduced the virtual assistant Cortana, a proper notification center, installing apps to SD and so much more. It showed Microsoft’s commitment to make the OS competitive in an industry that has heavily dominated by Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS.

However according to a report by AdDuplex, around 80% of Windows Phone devices were running Windows Phone 8.1 or later, which means that a majority of these phones right now will not receive updates or support from Microsoft.

This move cripples existing Windows Phone smartphones that run 8.1 or earlier, but also in a way should worry users that have smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile. According to AdDuplex, they estimated that Windows 10 Mobile runs on 20% of Windows phones and Microsoft could probably stop supporting them in the future at this rate.

However, this means that people with phones that run Windows Phone 8.1 or later may have to either upgrade to phones that are running Windows 10 Mobile, or jump the burning platform if you know what I mean.