Microsoft's Skype drops support for more than 80% of Windows Phone users

We posted earlier today that following an architecture change Skype is set to drop support for Skype on Windows Phone 8.1, and older versions of Android. The Windows Phone app is set to stop working in October 2016.

Rudy Hyun has now reminded us that this means more than 80% of Windows Phone users will soon be excluded from the app.

Skype will drop the support of WP8.1 devices, seriously?7
~80% of WPhones runs 8.1…One more bullet in the feet… pic.twitter.com/RrAMcR0HZN

— Rudy Huyn (@RudyHuyn) July 20, 2016

So only 10.9% of windows phones will be able to use Skype starting October 2016… @SkypeSupport,think about it! pic.twitter.com/6tSyeLUeBf

— Rudy Huyn (@RudyHuyn) July 20, 2016

This is not the first time the Microsoft company dropped support for older versions of Windows Phone, with the company abandoning 10 million Windows Phone 7 users in August 2014. With the vast majority of Windows Phone users still on Windows Phone 8.1, we estimate on this occasion 30-50 million Windows Phone users have been left in the lurch once again.

In a case of deja vu we then wrote:

It is expected the move is due to Skype moving to a new architecture, and not feeling bothered enough to code a new app for a dying platform.

This attitude is of course common, but seeing it from Microsoft itself should set off alarm bells about promises for future support.

The crux of the issue is of course that Microsoft reneged on its promise to upgrade all Windows Phone 8.1 users to Windows 10, and the limited distribution and selection of Windows 10 Mobile handsets even if users wanted to upgrade within the OS family.

It seems clear to me that Microsoft has already discounted the mass of the Windows Phone installed base, and that this will soon result in a self-fulfilling prophesy of an installed base so small that its irrelevant even to Microsoft.