14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft recently announced that it's firing 7,800 people, most of them from the Phone Hardware division, as it works to rethink its mobile strategy, and now the company continues this reorganization by dropping some of the apps it offered on smartphones running Windows Phone, Android, and iOS.
MSN Food & Drink, MSN Health & Fitness, MSN Travel, and Photosynth will all be discontinued, Neowin reports, and Microsoft is now notifying users about this to make sure that everyone's aware of the change.
All apps will be removed from the stores, so nobody will be allowed to download them anymore, while those who have them on their devices can continue running them for a little bit longer.
MSN Food & Drink will go dark on Windows, iOS, and Android on September 28, while MSN Health & Fitness will have the same fate on November 1. MSN Travel will also be discontinued on September 8, the source writes.
Some MSN apps will survive
Microsoft confirmed the change in a statement, but the company explained that not all MSN apps are being killed off, as some are still very popular and have their own place in the upcoming Windows 10 operating system, on both PCs and smartphones. Android and iOS users, however, won't be able to install them, as they will be Windows exclusive.
“We regularly evaluate our business to ensure we’re focused on the areas where our users find the most value. We will continue to support those apps with broad consumer appeal including News, Weather, Sports and Money, which will be made available as apps on Windows 10 and will remain cross platform,” the company said in a statement.
Despite the fact that it's removing these apps, no other layoffs are planned, Microsoft said, and the teams working on the projects that will be discontinued will be transferred to other applications or related projects.