The confusion around Microsoft's mobile story is my fault. Not mine personally, but the fault of people like me — writers and vocal techies.

Microsoft's shifts in short-term objectives are also to blame, but I'll address that later. There has been little consistency in the narrative surrounding the status of Microsoft's mobile efforts. That narrative has been dutifully communicated over the years by a number of writers, techies and various outlets. Much of that content is not straight news echoing Microsoft's declaration of its overall strategy, however. Redmond is notoriously cryptic about its moves in mobile. Thus, the majority of what permeates the web regarding Microsoft and mobile are personal assessments based on sparse information and the state of affairs at the time of writing. And though most of what's written are based on the same data, it's filtered through the perspective, subjective perceptions and analytical aptitude of individual writers. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more This has led to a seemingly unending cycle of articles declaring Windows phone and Microsoft's mobile efforts as dead; followed shortly thereafter with contrasting views by the same writers when some "new" information about some "new" plan is discovered. There's often a return to a dismal assessment when fortune seems to turn again against Microsoft in the form of departing apps, lost partnerships or some other calamity. And the beat goes on. Is Microsoft's mobile strategy as volatile as this vacillating coverage portrays? No, it is not. A post-smartphone perspective provides context

Let's look at it this way. Weather and climate are two different things. Weather is a part of the climate and represents a distinct atmospheric state over a specific area at a specific point in time. Conversely, climate can include a variety of weather conditions over a long period. Many Microsoft watchers seem to view and respond to Microsoft's mobile efforts according to the "weather" rather than the "climate." Within the context of its long "climate" view, Microsoft has frustrated users and writers by modifying aspects of its phone strategy multiple times over the years. This admittedly makes following Microsoft's mobile story challenging for some. Furthermore, it's clear that the company's smartphone efforts have failed. Despite these realities, the company's overarching and decades-old mobile strategy, to bring a telephony-enabled mobile device with the full power of Windows to market has remained unchanged. Microsoft would have continued pursuing a post-smartphone device even if it had succeeded with smartphones. Microsoft's mobile strategy is still on course Responding to weather vs. climate