The future of Windows Phone is solely dependent on how Microsoft executes its universal app strategy. If they successfully launch a way of running the same app on Windows (desktop/laptop), Phone and Tablet (non-x86) then it may be able to come back from the dead.

Unfortunately Microsoft have almost no experience at doing such a thing, they have always lived in their [big] Windows eco-system bubble and that may very well be the thing that stops Windows Phone, Windows Tablet's etc from ever becoming a real player in the market.

The next year is going to be critical to Microsoft's long term success as a platform provider outside of PCs.

It is currently possible to share 90% of the code between a Windows Phone and a Windows 8 app. Heck, it is even possible to write the UI of an app once and make it work on both platforms. The binaries are now the same on Windows Phone and Windows 8 (I think you can submit a single one for both apps), and universal apps are already a thing (you can buy it once and get the app on Windows 8 and Windows Phone).

It's a matter of time before people realize they can use Xamarin to port a Windows app to iOS/Android in a matter of days.

All this craze of Xamarin, I really need to check it out haha

Thanks for your advice!

Already starting on Android devices :)