As Microsoft flogs Bing Maps to Uber and Android rumours re-emerge, is the end nigh for Windows Phone?

When a four per cent market share's just not enough

Microsoft has announced it is selling part of its Bing Maps service to app-based taxi firm Uber, sparking fresh rumours that it may be considering its options on the future of Windows Phone.

The company is also closing its web display advertising business, which it is selling to AppNexus and AOL.

At the same, Android Authority alleges that a "source at Microsoft" has "confirmed that Android is under discussion" as a mobile operating system to replace Windows Phone.

But what is the likelihood that Microsoft is really planning to pull the plug on Windows Phone in the near future?

CEO Satya Nadella's recent memo to staff - as printed in full by Computing last week - indicated that Microsoft is looking to chop failing endeavours, with Nadella telling staff the company must "move quickly when we make mistakes, recognising failure happens along the way to mastery", as well as speaking of making "tough choices in areas where things are not working".

The Bing Maps deal will reportedly see around 100 Microsoft employees moving to Uber, and while it's hard to gauge exactly what this means on either a skills or technological level, selling off even part of its mapping operation means Microsoft is no longer as serious as it was about integrating its own geolocation services into its mobile portfolio.

As for Windows Phone, it can hardly be thought of as a success so far. The 2014 $7.2bn acquisition of Nokia has so far resulted mainly in putting budget Lumia devices in the hands of between just 2.7 per cent and 4.2 per cent of the global market - depending on whose figures you believe.

There are also Microsoft's previous flirtations with Android to consider - the deal it made with Samsung to include Microsoft Office apps preloaded onto the Galaxy S6 standing out as a possible experiment in collaboration with Google, which commands a 78 per cent share of the mobile OS market.

The Windows Phone "app gap" is another concern for Microsoft, which it doesn't seem any closer to figuring out how to plug, despite Windows 10 boss Joe Belfiore's promises to Computing back in October 2014 that the company was working on it. The reality is that developer interest in Windows Phone is still not as high as Microsoft wants - or needs. There are many who may consider that there is not enough space in the mobile market for a third app store.

That said, while Nadella seems determined to sharpen up or cut out the more flaccid parts of Redmond's output, Windows Phone is unlikely to be chopped in the foreseeable future. After all, the company has been preaching its "One Microsoft" message of unity, which covers everything from hardware and software to general company attitude.

In line with this, the Windows 10 message is about shared API sets across hardware and about a Windows Phone that endeavours to fill gaps in other technological ecosystems. Apple, it believes, is still too consumer focused for business, and Android too prone to forking, suffering from a proliferation of versions and builds.

With the promise of a "PC-like" interface when a mouse and keyboard is plugged in, Windows 10 Mobile (note that Microsoft has dropped the "Windows Phone" label for the next version) could become the truly portable version of Windows everybody has been clamouring for since the first Windows CE-based PDAs arrived in the mid-1990s.