Microsoft and Google have signed agreements with the New York Attorney General to add a "kill switch" to Windows Phone and Android devices.
This agreement was reached as part of the "Secure our Smartphones" initiative, which will help reduce the theft of smartphones. The Kill Switch will enable a user to remotely erase and lock the device, and will require the person who has the phone to enter the login credentials of the owner, i.e the username and password of the account, which was used to lock the phone. So the device literally becomes unusable.
The Kill Switch feature is already present in Apple iOS, called Find my iPhone. According to the report filed by the NYC Attorney General, ever since Apple implemented the Kill Switch in iOS, the number of iPhone thefts dropped by 19% in the city. Unfortunately, this saw a rise in the number of thefts of Android and Windows Phones which did not have a kill switch, with a 40% increase in thefts of Samsung devices.
There is no ETA on when the feature will be implemented into Windows Phone and Android Operating Systems, but the sooner the better.
source: 1, 2, 3