After a long time of silence and only half-answers, we now have some plain speak by Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Windows, on the company's current and future plans for Windows 10 Mobile.
As pundits and observers have claimed for a while now, as far as Microsoft is concerned, Windows 10 Mobile is more or less on life support.
Belfiore today clarified that Microsoft will continue to push out bug fixes and security updates for the platform but if you're holding out any hope for new features or hardware, you really shouldn't. When directly asked if it's time to leave the Windows Mobile platform, Joe's response was a nuanced yes.
If the man in charge of a platform is no longer using it, that doesn't exactly inspire confidence in others to stick with it, either. If you can't beat them, join them and that's exactly what Microsoft is now doing by bringing a majority of its services to competing mobile platforms.