Contact your missing app maker

[anon(5466678)]

This is a plea to the community to contact the makers of that app that windows 10 is missing.

Now a quick story about what I did, and what you should do too.

I am a design engineer, as such I use CAD software most of my day. I started a design business about a year and a half ago to try to get going on my own (its been slow to start). One of the main things I had to decide was how to handle CAD, specifically in a portable way. CAD laptops in general are monsters, i didnt want a monster. So, I researched remote app capabilities. The thought was that i could install the CAD software on my desktop at home and remote in to the app from anywhere on any computer, the heavy lifting is done by the desktop and my spectre x360 just has to display it. Beautiful, yet over my head in complexity. It was around this time that OnShape came along. OnShape basically does exactly what I wanted to do but in a much larger scale. It is a browser based CAD system, the hard math is handled in the server, all your device does is display it.

OnShape started with 2 means of using it. First was the browser based interface, this is their main interface and it is the most useful way to use it currently. Additionally, however, they released an iOS app at launch. Then shortly after that an Android app. Then continuum came into being. OMG... I can have cad on my phone plug it into a screen and have it be desktop like... at least that was the thought. I emailed OnShape to see if they would write a universal app, i explained to them how continuum would change the way of computing, how universal apps would run on every windows 10 device including an xbox (think presentation of models) etc... etc... Got back the classic response of "If we see enough user demand we will make the app". Crest fallen I walked away from my computer and cried a little.

Basically the developers have said, if we don't beat down their doors with universal app requests we wont get them. So, I am calling on the community to write their favorite app developer an email, give them the vision of the future. Their app, on any and every screen. These aren't just phone apps, windows phone has a few users, but windows 10 has 200 million users and growing. If they build the universal app, the phone app will follow. The continuum experience will grow, and it will change the way computing and work are done today.

Thanks for reading

 

[Nikolai Kuzbanovsky]

Hello and good luck with your bussiness!
I think matlab has an android app that does this remote thing, it is a really nice idea!

Just a friendly advice though, don't get many hopes with microsoft, the user base of windows 10 mobile is actually getting smaller with time, as Mr Nadella said.

 

[anon(5466678)]

Yes, but that is the point i am making. Windows Universal apps =/= Windows Mobile apps. This is the same mentality that will keep universal apps from becoming what they need to be. This is the same mentality that keeps app creators from making a universal app.

There is a reason I posted this in the Continuum forum and not the windows 10 forum or the windows mobile general forum. Windows 10 will do fine without universal apps, it would be a better experience with them, but they are needed for success on that platform. Windows Mobile as a platform NEEDS universal apps, but Windows Mobile alone is not a good enough reason to make a Universal App, like you said no users...

Continuum is a differentiator, Continuum is the first step toward the future of computing hardware. Listening to Paul last week on Windows Weekly, he shared his vision of the future where no one has or needs a computer or cell phone, the hardware just become public use. Personally I dont see it that way. Continuum (and hololens) are the future of computing hardware in my eyes. We will all carry around our computers, even more so than we do already. We may not ever need to plug it in to a display (hololens) but we will have the full computing power we need with us at all times. That is the future of computing that I see, one small portable device that powers our entire computing lives.

Continuum is the first step toward that hardware for present day use scenarios. Today, the most viable platform for that future is currently windows. Android and iOS do not have viable desktop scenarios, Windows does. This is the advantage that windows has given itself by going desktop first and morphing that into mobile. While the future may show that a traditional desktop scenario is not necessary, in the present it is. Continuum on Windows Mobile is the only platform that is available that accomplishes this well, but it needs more support from developers.

In order to truly realize the potential of Continuum we need Universal Apps from the places people go to get work done, play games, or be entertained. Unfortunately many of these app makers see the world the same way you do, Right Now is the only thing that matters. And Right now there are not enough people that would use their app on windows mobile. Which is why we must work to convince them to think into the future, and see the possibilities of One Windows and Continuum.

 

[Alexander Long]

Hopefully those app can catch up. I mean, though most of the time, I can live with continuum alone. black of MatLab and Maple and Photoshop and visual Studio, I just have to have a real PC like surface pro. Though, I did once using the Desktop Remote app on Continuum to remotely do high end stuff once , it worked OK< but you need internet connection stable and fast enough from both end to do it smoothly.

 

[anon(5466678)]

Matlab and Maple... havent used those since college. IMO those are good candidates to be web based, both are largely text input and some heavy calculation on the backend. Streaming those code inputs up to a server and then having the results come back should be relatively low bandwidth too.

Photoshop is a problem with my cloud-based app dreams, I dont really have a good solution for photoshop (i dont use it, but I have). I think photoshop may be one of those things where you always have to have a large and feature rich application installed on your device. It's a lot of visual data to be streaming over the web. I dont see why that app couldnt be made universal, but I dont think it would run well on a tablet or phone, just too much happening. Then again people say that about CAD software, and like i said before OnShape is not just a gimmicky program like microsoft 3D Builder.

Visual Studio, I dont have any experience at all with. I suspect that emulation could be heavy on bandwidth for cloud based code testing. I dont know enough about how VS gets used to see the way forward for that.

I didnt intend to go through your reply service by service, but it appears that's how i answered it. There are many fronts to fight on this issue, consistent high speed internet is definitely one of them. Getting traditional application developers to move the backend of their applications to the cloud is another hurdle, I expect that would be a hefty cost for them. Microsoft is pushing hard for this with azure, I hope more people take advantage of it.