Valve ignores Windows 10 Mobile

Some of you probably realize that Valve enforced secure trading on Steam by forcing users to use their mobile authenticator if they want their trades to go smooth.

Turns out the app is only available for iOS and Android. All other people have to wait 3 days until their items are delivered to the buyer. There are also Steam Community discounts for people with this app and if you don’t have the app you can’t partake in those.

Steam Rage

I really had hope that someday soon we would see an universal app for Windows 10 Mobile which could be used on phones and tablets – with respective UI designs for each. There is a huge demand on Steam Community forums, here is a random thread with hundreds of replies.

Windows 10 Mobile is installed on 7% of all active Windows phone devices (including my Lumia 640 LTE) and it didn’t even officially come out yet on the older devices.

Thinking that it’s growing market share in Europe would matter enough right? Or 12% market share in Russia (bigger than Apple’s iOS)? Wrong. Here is what Steam support has to say about it:

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“At this time we have no plan to implement a Steam Mobile app for Windows phone, but we have made updates to make such of Steam now accessible via your mobile web browser. I’ll make sure the mobile team knows that users like you are interested in the app specific features.”

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Here is a nice reddit post with the source of both images. What do you guys think?[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Comments

6 responses to “Valve ignores Windows 10 Mobile”

  1. trancemansion Avatar
    trancemansion

    No one using Win platform on mobile devices, except my cousin who is stuped and don’t even care what phone he has. The point is Win Platform on mobile devices is real crap with very difficult menu and such as. I have Android based phone and i’m really ok with him. Long life battery / fast respond for every operation i did on him and etc. So far Android and iOS are the best platforms in the World so fuck the Windows Phone…

  2. stranded Avatar

    @hunshiki

    “Tablets require tablet optimized apps in order to efficiently use the bigger screen estate.”

    This is where Windows 10 Universal Apps come in:
    https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2015/03/02/a-first-look-at-the-windows-10-universal-app-platform/

  3. hunshiki Avatar
    hunshiki

    @Stranded: Tablets are another story. See the “closing thought” comment of mine. Tablets require tablet optimized apps in order to efficiently use the bigger screen estate. Of course this does not happen with Steam app – which is already a trainwreck. Addendum: Projected statistics and estimations are pointless. The market, people, platforms, everything changes way too fast. Windows Mobile has been out for a very long time. Then came WP7. WP8, WP10. If we projected the WP7 gain of users, almost everyone would be using WP by now. But that did not happen either. Microsoft needs to step up its game and fix the platform.

  4. stranded Avatar

    Yeah but what about the tablets? They are still big and check this out:

    By the end of 2019, their market share is expected to reach 17.5 percent, thanks to shipments of 41.7 million units.

    To reach that figure by the end of 2019, Windows tablets will take away share from market leader Android. Android vendors should be worried, as shipments are actually expected to decrease by the end of 2019, from 139.8 million units in 2015 to 135.4 million units, leading to a drop in market share from 66 percent to 56.6 percent. And this space is likely to only get more crowded over time.

    http://betanews.com/2015/08/27/idc-guesstimate-windows-tablets-will-have-most-market-share-gains-through-2019/

  5. hunshiki Avatar
    hunshiki

    One more closing thought: The Steam app on Android SUCKS. Sucks big time. Oh boy. It is laggy, it looks outdated as hell (it’s using some Android 2.3 API/SDK?), it sucks battery wise… it’s just a prime example of how _not_ to write apps for Android. IMO Valve should either fix their apps on the major platforms, then do apps for the tiny/non-existant WP userbase (just because a user is loud, does not mean that the share is really considerably big). Or, just remove the apps, as they are pretty much broken at the moment.

  6. hunshiki Avatar
    hunshiki

    I understand that Valve is big and making money, but you cannot possibly ask any company to support all the niché and dead platforms. If so, where is the app for SailfishOS? How about Bada? Ubuntu Phone? Well and then there is Tizen, too. Then there is Meego. But WAIT, there is more! Blackberry OS? I mean come on, that’s just as popular/big as WP is. Firefox OS? Symbian? Palm? Hell I think Valve should do an app for my classic Nokia phone, I mean it can display characters, why would it be difficult?

    Oh wait, just checked the source is from Reddit.
    No surprise or comment then, carry on.

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