Tech Trend 247

Who out there is excited for a new Windows 10 Mobile phone? Did your eyes just light up and your heart skip a beat? You're in the very small minority that cares about Windows 10 Mobile then.

For some reason, the Japanese company NuAns is kickstarting a Windows 10 Mobile phone. It would be a great idea if Windows 10 Mobile was relevant at all, but it's not. With only 0.7% of the worldwide smartphone marketshare as of Q1 2016 (that's worse than the 1.7% ending Q3 2015), according to Gartner, the mobile platform is as a good as dead.

Even Microsoft knows it, which is why we're seeing the company pivot towards providing its excellent apps and services on iOS and Android instead.

With so little marketshare and more importantly, such a puny selection of apps, you have to wonder who will buy this phone.

The dream of carrying just your Windows 10 phone and using Continuum and a dock to transform it into a desktop PC was an idealistic pursuit, but ultimately one nobody cared for. Each of us is a multiple device person with each device serving a different purpose. 

With so little marketshare, and more importantly, such a puny selection of apps, you have to wonder what NuAns is thinking with its campaign for the NEO phone. The company's asking for $725,000 to produce its phone, but who the heck is going to buy it?

The niche guy you say! Well, of course, Windows 10 Mobile is a niche — not by choice, but by Microsoft's own failure.

Like a thick old Nokia Lumia smartphone, the NEO isn't competing with the ultra-thin flagship iPhones and Android phones on the market.

As a phone, the NEO is decidedly midrange. It has a 5-inch HD display (1,280 x 720), Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable up to 128GB via microSD card), and a 3,350 mAh battery. On the back is a 13-megapixel f/2.0 aperture camera and on the front is a 5-megapixel f/2.4 aperture camera. Yeah...not exciting. But at least it has a reversible USB-C port!

Instead of performance, NuAns is banking on customizability. The NEO has two back cover panels that are interchangeable and the company hopes to sell a variety of different materials for each cover (i.e. wood, plastic, leather, etc.). There's even a cover with a slot for storing cash or credit cards.

Don't want to buy their cover panels? No problem. The company's planning to make the designs available for users to 3D print for themselves.

Not to totally poo-poo over NuAns — I applaud them for taking this risk — but they are almost certainly destined for failure. 

Windows 10 doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of gaining popularity and catching up to iOS and Android.

The NEO phone is something Windows phone fans needed years ago. And even if it had launched then, it's questionable if it would have found any success at all seeing as Windows Phone 7 and 8 were flops as well.

To NuAns, I say good luck. There are still 38 days left to the NEO phone's campaign and the company's already received more than $37,000 in crowdfunding at the time of this writing. 

Who knows, maybe the phone will get funded and the few people who backed it for $399.99 (early bird special) will be able to enjoy a device that has swappable panels.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Fresh off its stellar earnings report, which owed much to its remarkable mobile performance, Facebook is giving a little focus back to the desktop.

On Thursday, Facebook unveiled its first Facebook Messenger app for Windows 10 desktop, along with an updated Facebook app for Windows 10 and, yes, in a nod to Microsoft's struggling mobile efforts, a fresh Instagram for Windows 10 Mobile.

The arrival of the apps, which should happen sometime Thursday, is not a surprise. Facebook promised during its most recent F8 Developer conferences that it would be building Universal Windows 10 apps.

Now they're delivering them. 

The new Facebook for Windows 10 App can live in your start menu and in a pinned Live Tile. Because it's a Universal Windows app, it will offer deeper integration with other Windows 10 apps and systems, including File Explorer. 

According to a Facebook blog post, you'll be able to share photos directly from File Explorer to Facebook.

Messenger, which is new to the Windows 10 desktop world, will use its native integration to deliver message notifications on your desktop and inside the Messenger Live Tile.

When Instagram first arrived on Windows Phones in 2013, it was a somewhat pale imitation of the experience you get on Android and iOS. Facebook says in its blog post that, at the time, "we were focused on bringing the app’s core features to the Windows Phone community as quickly as possible." 

The new version promises to include key Instagram features like Explore and video.

With Windows Phone market share now at a reported 2.8%, the rationale for bothering to build a Windows 10 Mobile app is questionable, at best. However, Facebook has already invested in building Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone and the Windows 10 Universal app subsystem ostensibly makes it easier to build apps for desktop and mobile at the same time.

The core Facebook app and Messenger for Windows 10 arrive on Thursday in the Windows App Store. Instagram for Windows 10 Mobile will be in the Windows Phone Store. 

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.