Re: No surprise here
> I don't think Microsoft is trying to dump the phone business,
No, of course they aren't, it is the [lack of] customers that is dumping it.
> the hope that OEM's will start making Windows phones
Many OEMs have tried making Windows Phones but failed to get customers to buy them in sufficient numbers. Microsoft only implement it only a small number of semi-obsolete SoCs and won't let the OEMs tailor it to the hardware that they want to use. This makes WP permanently half a generation behind the leading edge. They are cheap relative to other models because they are being put in the remainder bins.
Nokia phone division lost money in every quarter in spite of being given a billion dollars a year by MS. Microsoft have lost 14 billion or more (7.6b + 950m + 1b/year to Nokia), why would any OEM want to get back on that treadmill?
> yet still take a growfalling share of the phone OS business.
FTFY
Biting the hand that feeds IT
