This is fantastic news. If I can get my Android apps on my Lumia phone, I'll be back in a flash. Nothing against the Note 4, but the camera, as good as it is, still leaves me wanting for the 930, not to speak of the 1020.
No, I mean it's the exact right thing to do. They should have done that a while ago, but I guess with W10 and Universal Apps now is as good a time as any.
They have to make a final major push for developers and they have to make it as easy as possible to port their stuff over.
When I say final push I mean it. It's now or never.
It also has nothing to do with MS going Android. I don't see the connection.
actually I skimmed the article and misread it. so they are going to only allow apps if you port them? They aren't going to actually run the android marktetplace, is that correct?
meaning, if you have andriod ios whatever apps then you just need to put in minimal effort to publish on the windows store?
not sure how that will work tbh. even 3 hours worth of effort might be too much considering the maintenance fees for an entire platform unless it also piggy backs off of android. if it does that could be a real winner.
This is fantastic news. If I can get my Android apps on my Lumia phone, I'll be back in a flash. Nothing against the Note 4, but the camera, as good as it is, still leaves me wanting for the 930, not to speak of the 1020.
Even if they make it super easy to port apps from Android/iOS, I'm still pessimistic that this solves the app problem. Microsoft has previously offered to do ports themselves/pay for a port and some companies still refused.
I'm still not seeing what you "Told Us"? This isn't Android apps on WP this is creating a api and OS environment that makes porting seamless. They've been talking about this for years. Nothing new here.
I'm still not seeing what you "Told Us"? This isn't Android apps on WP this is creating a api and OS environment that makes porting seamless. They've been talking about this for years. Nothing new here.
It depends on the angle. Android apps without the Play Store are useless. The Play Store on Windows would be the death of the Windows Store, which in turn mean no developer support for Windows which would be the death of Windows itself.
Making it easier to port Android apps to the platform is essential though. Let's see what Build holds, I would hope that they have something to say about that.
Gotcha. I assumed you were the person that said Windows Phone's should run Android apps. I believe I agreed with your quote when you wrote it and still do.
Even if they make it super easy to port apps from Android/iOS, I'm still pessimistic that this solves the app problem. Microsoft has previously offered to do ports themselves/pay for a port and some companies still refused.
I still think the best solution is to outright purchase Xamarin. It would give C# a native cross platform solution which would work with Android and IOS ... And all they would have to do is make the current Xamarin offerings free and integrated into Visual Studio.
They lost $4 million last quarter. This pretty much makes them one of the top five most profitable smartphone manufacturers. I wouldn't worry about it. They are going to streamline hopefully and cut out all these costs with hundred different models.
I still think the best solution is to outright purchase Xamarin. It would give C# a native cross platform solution which would work with Android and IOS ... And all they would have to do is make the current Xamarin offerings free and integrated into Visual Studio.
And therein lies the reason for altering the UI and removing WP specific interface paradigms. Making stuff specific for panorama or pivots increases port time, thus decreasing feasibility of ports. Thus the WP hamburger menu.
And therein lies the reason for altering the UI and removing WP specific interface paradigms. Making stuff specific for panorama or pivots increases port time, thus decreasing feasibility of ports. Thus the WP hamburger menu.
I still think the best solution is to outright purchase Xamarin. It would give C# a native cross platform solution which would work with Android and IOS ... And all they would have to do is make the current Xamarin offerings free and integrated into Visual Studio.
Gotcha. I assumed you were the person that said Windows Phone's should run Android apps. I believe I agreed with your quote when you wrote it and still do.
Development and related maintenance is only part of the app lifecycle. There is also testing (which will need to cover a wide variety of WP devices & capabilities - resolutions, memory, performance), support, another account for billing/payments, managing an additional store submission process, etc.
I still think the best solution is to outright purchase Xamarin. It would give C# a native cross platform solution which would work with Android and IOS ... And all they would have to do is make the current Xamarin offerings free and integrated into Visual Studio.
I still think the best solution is to outright purchase Xamarin. It would give C# a native cross platform solution which would work with Android and IOS ... And all they would have to do is make the current Xamarin offerings free and integrated into Visual Studio.
Which comes to step two of the mastermind plan. They port Visual Studio to Mac... Because as it stands now, alot or developers have gone Mac because you can only develop iOS on a Mac, and you can also develop Android on a Mac. In these situations we need to bring our platform tools to the developers to remove a hurdle for them because every hurdle hurts the platform.
We aren't going to get current developers to rewrite their apps to a theoretical Microsoft owned Xamarin, but we could make it an argument to better persuade future developers to use our Microsoft owned Xamarin platform because it would be true cross platform development.
Which comes to step two of the mastermind plan. They port Visual Studio to Mac... Because as it stands now, alot or developers have gone Mac because you can only develop iOS on a Mac, and you can also develop Android on a Mac. In these situations we need to bring our platform tools to the developers to remove a hurdle for them because every hurdle hurts the platform.
We aren't going to get current developers to rewrite their apps to a theoretical Microsoft owned Xamarin, but we could make it an argument to better persuade future developers to use our Microsoft owned Xamarin platform because it would be true cross platform development.
And thus part three is better integrating everything together. Use the theoretical Microsoft Xamarin as a base to improve upon.
Your right... while it would still help tremendously, this really should have been done years ago where if it had happened, probably would have improved the landscape a good deal. Honestly though, I've heard plenty of developers express alot interest in Xamarin, many of them saying they would love to try it out, only to then express that they wont because the pricing models of Xamarin are incredibly insane to even get access to basics like being able to use our own tools.
I do wonder how Windows 10 will play into things in that regards. All apps will be one codebase, so when debating marketshare do we bring it up by OS, or will developers still refer to it by form factor such as Desktop, Phone and Xbox all separately.
With it all running under one codebase, I don't see how the "oh it needs 15% marketshare" argument stands up, because how do you determine marketshare across different markets. If you just take it by operating system, then Windows comes in pretty high (assuming a good number of PCs upgrade)...if you take it by form factor, then we come in at a high percentage for PCs and a really low percentage on phones/tablets.
I mean, sure some apps will be designed by a specific usage, phones/pcs/tablets and will likely be restricted to those... in that case devs will likely go off market share with the form factor, but for everyone else? Why wouldn't they go by OS considering they are for all intents and purposes writing once and playing everywhere.
I think I'm going insane on all fronts. It likely wont effect anything any more than a small bump.
I guess I'll assume its up for grabs. I'll make the Build OT again. If anyone wants an OT subtitle let me know and pass around suggestions
Edit: And the Build OT is done. I'll probably post it mid day tomorrow
Of course I brought up W10 (and going international, eventually). Nobody actively hates WP here (I don't work at Snapchat), but we're not going to go out of our way to support the platform when the return on investment is just not there. People want to support WP, but nobody can justify the cost. It's sad
On a related note: I'm an engineer at a startup at one of the biggest techhubs in the world, and not a single app I use for work has an official app. Github, Trello, PagerDuty, Meetup, Eventbrite, any Google service, it's no wonder I'm the only person out of 80+ with a Windows Phone. MS has no shot of getting apps on its platform unless it can get app developers to start having WPs, and it has no shot of getting app developers to start owning WPs unless these basic apps make it. Just as it has no shot at getting big apps on WP with iOS/Android feature parity unless marketshare goes way up, and it has no shot at marketshare unless these big name apps make their way to the platform. I've been a fan since the Lightning leak, but I feel like it's too late at this point for MS to do anything about it. Windows 10 needs to be pocket Aces and even then depending on the draw that's not enough to survive.
Bring on BUILD, this is your last chance MS (as far as I'm concerned anyways)
In that case, it seems like it would be great for you. Honestly not even sure if you need 4GB instead of 2GB ram, since Bay Trail tablets with 1-2GB ram can handle light gaming.
