I'm in the process of releasing Foobar2000 Copilot Lite -- the free version of the app.

Going forward, I'll update both Copilot and Copilot Lite for other languages as well as for any bug corrections. But I'll do no major updates on these builds.  After my recent updates to the foo_controlserver plug-in, I also feel that the Foobar2000 PC component is now in good shape.

I will, however, work on porting my WP8 Silverlight app to run natively on Windows 10 as a UWP app. The current version of Foobar2000 Copilot runs as a WP8 app under Windows 10 Mobile.  But because Microsoft has announced they will drop support for all Silverlight apps in Windows 10 going forward, my focus, priority will be doing a native Windows 10 version of Foobar2000 Copilot.

The writing on the wall is evident with Microsoft doing yet another reboot of their mobile plans. Microsoft formally announced end of life for WP8.1 and even Windows 10 Mobile. There have also released no new phone hardware since the Lumia 950 and 950xl in fall of 2015.

It's been a painful process to watch, with Microsoft essentially killing off their current phone platform to make way for the future.  It's also been difficult as a developer dealing with these changing tool sets. 

But it's not all doom and gloom. There are rays of positivity.

Microsoft's future direction I feel is now clearer with some recent developments. One being Microsoft formally releasing full Windows 10 on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and 845 chipsets with x86 legacy app support via emulation.

HP and ASUS introduced new Snapdragon 835 laptops in December 2017. See the Engadget article.

So far these laptops look like they are being well received. These are very capable laptops. And these laptops aren't even using the more powerful 845 Snapdragon chipset, which will occur in the next cycle of releases.

Very significantly these are full featured laptops, but because they use 'mobile' chipsets they can be built light and thin and with battery life of over 20 hours.  They also support Internet connectivity with always connected high speed gigabit LTE -- but currently are missing the telephony software stack. That is the last missing piece, which would allow a user to place phone calls.

When that is in place -- then think what is the difference between one of these Snapdragon laptops and a Windows phone based on this same technology.

So I think Microsoft is close to finally realizing the dream of full Windows 10 on your phone. So in many cases your PC could be your phone. You could reduce your device count by investing in a single, premium phone running full Windows 10. This is an area where Microsoft could leapfrog Apple and Google -- since those companies are far from realizing a unified OS.

This approach is attractive to the consumer as well as to 3rd party hardware vendors. And since many of these laptop vendors also make phones, you could see them in the future making phones with full Windows 10.

I believe Microsoft will release a Surface phone based on the 845 Snapdragon chipset in 2018 and running full Windows 10. They will follow their business model of doing flagships like they did with their Surface PCs and at the same time encouraging and supporting 3rd party vendors to develop new hardware.

Another factor in why Windows phone never gained much traction was their total lack of carrier support. But I believe Microsoft will start smaller and via the Enterprise business market -- especially since their flagship phones will be premium priced. They likely will start to build up better carrier support by first providing users of the new Snapdragon laptops easy ways to activate carrier data plans directly from their laptops.

The carrier landscape has also changed, with it opening up to more mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) like Straight Talk -- where you can even Bring Your Own Phone. Also more carriers have been ending their traditional phone subsidy plans.  So I can see more consumers buying phones directly from the Microsoft store or from an online vendor versus from a traditional carrier store -- and then choosing and activating a plan directly from that phone.