14 DAY TRIAL // Difficult times for users of Windows phones as more and more developers announce their departure from the platform for various reasons.
While CNN decided to pull its app completely from Windows Phone, Wells Fargo is concentrating its efforts on Windows 10, so it’s now retiring support for its app aimed at version 8.1 of the operating system.
There are reports that Wells Fargo app no longer works on Windows Phone 8.1 devices, and whenever users launch it on their devices still running this version, they are provided with a prompt that tells them to upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile. Indeed, Wells Fargo already has a Windows 10 Mobile app, and it’s working pretty smoothly, so the company no longer wants to invest in keeping the Windows Phone 8.1 version alive.
Windows Phone 8.1 still running on most phones
And while this does make sense at some level, a simple look at Windows phones OS versions share proves that Wells Fargo should keep the Windows Phone 8.1 app constantly updated because this is where the majority of users actually are right now.
According to June 2016 data provided by AdDuplex, Windows Phone 8.1 still has a share of 78.8 percent in the world of Windows phones while Windows 10 Mobile is second with 10.9 percent. Windows Phone 8.0 is third with 7.4 percent.
Furthermore, AdDuplex estimated that Windows 10 Mobile will experience only small increases in the coming months because “everyone who actively wanted to upgrade their older phone already did so.”
With all those mentioned, it appears that Wells Fargo is leaving behind a large number of users, although for the company this is probably a mandatory decision, given the security improvements that are part of Windows 10 Mobile.
Security is an essential part of a mobile banking app, so Windows Phone is losing the battle with Windows 10 Mobile when it comes to this, so if your phone does support Microsoft’s new operating system, you’d better upgrade as soon as possible.