Feeling Lonely on Windows 10 Mobile

I have always wanted Windows Mobile to succeed. Like always. Back a long time ago I had an 8GB iPod Nano (the chiclet one). But my music library was expanding beyond my storage, so I started looking for a replacement. At the time my options were a bigger iPod Nano or an iPod Touch. Both seemed okay, but something didn’t quite feel right.

And then I remembered that one friend I had in High School who had a Zune. After a quick Google search I fell in love with the Zune HD, which was nearing the end of its lifespan. While I didn’t know that the Zune was about to die, I did love its design and its specs. I could get double the storage (32gb) for less than the cost of the iPods I was looking at.

My Zune was incredible. I cannot exaggerate when I say it changed my life. The UI was slick, I absolutely loved that it was unlike anything else, and yet it still worked like a charm. And the Zune software was my preferred music player for years, until my laptop broke and I couldn’t find the installer online. So naturally when Windows Phone 8 arrived on the scene I was pumped. I loved the look of Nokia’s lineup, I loved what I saw, and hoped it would continue to borrow from the original magic of my Zune HD.

Sadly, my Zune died after 3ish years of heavy usage. And I tried filling that hole with a Nokia phone. The App Gap never bothered me before (Zune had the sparsest App Store I’ve ever seen), which was the biggest gripe people had at the time. The following year I upgraded to my current phone, a Nokia 635, but I was starting to lose interest.

I am a budget phone user. I’ll say it, I don’t really need to spend a huge amount on a flagship. I can live and make do. But trying out Windows 10 on my phone was the worst decision for the life of my phone. After a year of being in Beta, of clunky experience and absent features, I’m losing faith in Windows.

Seriously, its been over a year now since Windows 10 Mobile was launched, and it still sucks. It was a barely-baked product then, and its still half-baked now. The magic of the UI and its innovative look is diminished by the terrible UX. Not only that, but its barely getting better.

I’m trying to stay optimistic, but realistically I’m doubting I can put my trust in Windows much longer. I know I for one got super excited about Continuum and the future of cell computing. But again, that long-shot dream is still far away from changing the world like we thought.