How are "Universal Apps" going to get us "these" apps??

runamuck83

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So, "Windows" (Universal) apps sound fantastic, but how is this platform going to gain us apps like "Starbucks", "Dunkin Donuts", etc. etc.?

These types of apps have no purpose on a tablet or a desktop so what incentive at all is there to make these apps?

How does "universal apps" help at all in this type of situation? An app that really only serves a mobile purpose...
 

ven07

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Some developers have said that the WP community is too small, so they won't support it.. With the fact that making one app for one type of device can translate into more and different types of devices, the amount of users grows exponentially. This takes away the "small community" problem..

It's not a great solution, but it's something.. However it still depends on the devs if they want to support or not
 

Matt Addy

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Then they will make their Windows App only usable to phone users. Windows Apps won't have to be universal they will just have the ability to be. Hope this fixes the matter for you.
 

tgp

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Some developers have said that the WP community is too small, so they won't support it.. With the fact that making one app for one type of device can translate into more and different types of devices, the amount of users grows exponentially. This takes away the "small community" problem..

Your theory is correct, but like runamuck83 said, some apps serve no purpose on a PC. For those, the "universal" aspect does not add any value. The potential user base is essentially unchanged.
 

sleeve22

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Yeah it will be tablets if anything that will contribute to growth of universal apps. There should be enough tablets in use to drive some amount of growth. Fingers crossed.
 

EBUK

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Windows on tablets still leaves a lot to be desired. The fact that they can run x86 binaries means there is no real need for Windows Apps on them.

I have a Linx 10, and using apps on it is very poor compared to running x86 programs. Poor = slow (very slow) load times, awkward gestures to complete tasks, clunky interfaces.

There is no real reason for a developer to move from x86 apps to Windows Apps - the only bonus is a few extra users on Windows Phone. If I were a dev of iOS / Android apps, I would want a easier was to port my apps to WP rather than the promise of Universal Apps which are pretty much pointless on the desktop as has already been pointed out.
 

Mike Gibson

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Windows on tablets still leaves a lot to be desired. The fact that they can run x86 binaries means there is no real need for Windows Apps on them.
There are two main problems with running Win32 programs on tablets:

1. Screen dpi is typically higher than the standard Desktop (96 dpi) and most Win32 programs are not high-dpi aware. That makes the UI elements small. It gets worse on a touch tablet because your fingertip is a very coarse pointing device, so the UI elements need to be even larger.

2. Most Desktop programs don't process the Win32 touch messages (WM_TOUCH and WM_GESTURE). That means they're processed by USER32 into coarse mouse message equivalents, which are processed by Desktop programs. It works but doesn't give you that smooth touch interaction. Intel has a opens source library that takes the WM_TOUCH messages and responds with smooth gesture messages for Win32 programs.

I have a Linx 10, and using apps on it is very poor compared to running x86 programs. Poor = slow (very slow) load times, awkward gestures to complete tasks, clunky interfaces.
The WinRT framework's performance is poor ... but it shouldn't be *that* much slower.

There is no real reason for a developer to move from x86 apps to Windows Apps - the only bonus is a few extra users on Windows Phone.
That's the killer flaw in the whole Universal App Platform. If it was 10 years ago, where Windows was dominant in overall computing, then introducing a universal Windows platform would have a chance to promote adoption of Windows tablets and phones. That ship sailed in 2006.

If I were a dev of iOS / Android apps, I would want a easier was to port my apps to WP rather than the promise of Universal Apps which are pretty much pointless on the desktop as has already been pointed out.
The WinRT design team's decision to go Async in the actual OS API made it orthogonal to existing phone and tablet OSes, so porting from iOS and Android is not trivial for simple things like file access (read Petzold's docs on his attempt to make universal libraries for Xamarin, Async spreads like cancer throughout the project). In addition, WinRT doesn't support OpenGL ES, only Direct3D, which means porting iOS and Android games is nontrivial.

WinRT's design was fundamentally flawed. It was too different from Win32 so it alienated Win32 programmers. It was too different from iOS and Android, so those devs didn't waste their time accommodating the few Windows Phone users. Yet, here's MSFT in 2015 still promoting the doomed platform. I guess they want to ride it to their grave.
 

tangledW

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So, "Windows" (Universal) apps sound fantastic, but how is this platform going to gain us apps like "Starbucks", "Dunkin Donuts", etc. etc.?

These types of apps have no purpose on a tablet or a desktop so what incentive at all is there to make these apps?

How does "universal apps" help at all in this type of situation? An app that really only serves a mobile purpose...

It doesn't. Move along.
 

Jazmac

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Some developers have said that the WP community is too small, so they won't support it.. With the fact that making one app for one type of device can translate into more and different types of devices, the amount of users grows exponentially. This takes away the "small community" problem..

It's not a great solution, but it's something.. However it still depends on the devs if they want to support or not

Good point but man, but how in all that is pure and holy is our very existence centered around a few developers? This is nuts that a few developers can be said that can make or break this platform. At least in the minds of "some bloggers" spreading this garbage.
 

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