Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella admits giving up on Windows Phone and mobile was a mistake

They did have some programs to try and push more apps, but dropped the ball far too quickly for it to gain traction.

Microsoft essentially shipped free phones out to everyone that wanted to make or port a windows phone app. Heck, I got one just to port over the schedule app I made for my small high school at the time and had maybe 300 installs.

The dev environment was actually a lot nicer to work with than the android one at the time as well.