How Microsoft Could Save Windows Phone

Windows 10 mobile has been a commercial failure.  The Windows Phone product began the decline long ago, however.  Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and Palm were the 3 original smartphones in the market.  Windows and Blackberry held most of the market while Palm failed in a matter of a few years.  When apple introduced iPhone the market was shaken up.  A new unique way phone that was easy to understand and looked modern and stylish at the time.  Blackberry started to falter more and Windows Mobile stayed about the same.  Then the atomic bomb known as Android OS appeared on the scene.  Shaking things up again.  Completely taking Blackberry out of the market and Windows Phone following suit.  iPhone is it's only true competitor and even that is failing fast.  Apple now only holds 15% of the mobile market share compared to the 81% Android holds.

The question is for Microsoft what should they do to try and become a player in the industry again? Truth of the matter is they will likely never topple Google and Android.  Android runs so many devices and is far more powerful than even most Desktop operating systems.  At this point Microsoft themselves have been developing Apps for Android and have a decent investment in the OS.  It would be smart for Microsoft to play off of this.  Making their new Windows Phone device and Android powered system with full access to the Google Play store and marketing their apps through Google's store.  This would allow them to have access to the millions of apps and services available on Android along with their own.  The biggest part of Windows Phone's failure is it's lack of capability and lack of Apps.  This would be the fastest and easiest way to remedy that and people trust Google.  A Google Microsoft partnership could make for a very interesting device.  If they want the Windows 10 look with tiles people have proven you can skin Android's homescreen to look like Windows 10 fairly easily.  At this point there are very few developers willing to build for Windows Phone because of the lack of user interest.  Basically there is no money to be made.  This is the same reason Samsung runs Android under their Touchwiz UI instead of using Tizen, their in house OS, on their most popular devices.