Windows Phone 8.1 has pretty much been dead for ever since Microsoft decided to release Windows 10 Mobile. We haven’t heard much about Windows Phone 8.1 ever since and we may not hear anything about it anymore.
Mainstream support for Windows Phone 8.1 will end on the 11th of July (today). What this means is that you should not expect to get any updates if you are using a device with this OS. This sort of means that the OS is pretty much dead unless Microsoft changes its mind. At this point, it looks like you won’t even be receiving critical security updates as far as I know.
Windows Phone 8.1 was released back in June 24, 2014 and that was when Microsoft introduced a 36-month lifecycle support policy. With this, the OS will reach its End of Life (EOL) today (July 11). Since Microsoft hasn’t communicated anything, we are going to assume that the company has no plans of extending support as of now. Things might change in the future but as of now the plans to end support for Windows Phone 8.1 are on track.
At the moment, Windows Phone 8.1 accounts for 75% of the Windows market (smartphone) with about 20% controlled by Windows 10 Mobile. What this shows is that a good number or Windows Mobile users will not be getting new updates going forward. If you are one of those, you can decide to stick around and use the insecure software, upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile or just switch to Android or iOS.
