As if there were any question, yesterday’s QnA session at the Windows 10 press event clarified what’s coming for Windows Phone (via The Verge):
Q: You mentioned screens ranging from 4 inches to 80 inches. Is Windows 10 the next version of the phone operating system too?
A: Yes.
So on the face of it, that’s great news. Microsoft is committed to a single underlying operating system, running everything from phones to tablets to laptops to desktops to screens about as big as you can imagine. There is to be a Universal App model, and a Universal App Store, and supposedly any device should be able to run any app, more or less. Those devices will be all part of a bigger whole, and stuff you do on your phone will be there for you on your tablet or PC, in ways that simply don’t exist now, and all of that is great.
The problem is, of course, that none of this is going to happen for close to a year. With yesterday’s announcements, Microsoft made a lame duck out of the Windows Phone OS, and if Microsoft isn’t selling many Windows Phones now, it sure isn’t going to be competing against Android and the iPhone with a lame duck OS.
Windows 10 didn’t just skip a number in its naming, it skipped a whole cycle of Windows Phone development, too. Next year around this time, not only will you be able to buy new Windows 10 Phones, but a whole range of Windows 10 devices all connected together like never before. You’re just going to have to wait.