Microsoft apparently wants Windows Phone to be ?a better Android than Android?

[rodan01]

Anything beyond that is taking my statement a bit farther than I meant it to be taken. From my point of view, an Android app works just as well on WP as it does on Android when both perform and behave identically. In my opinion, allowing Android apps to integrate with concepts native to WP (like live tiles) is unnecessary, because most people would consider the app gap as being bridged without that.

I think WP users like Live tiles and the Modern UI, so Microsoft should motivate developers to adapt their Android apps to WP. Developers have incentives too, profits are related to the quality of the app. But, if users have to choose between -Android app without any adaptation- and no app, I think most would choose the former.


After reading the Elop's email, I think the support for Android apps is less likely:

...
We will be particularly focused on making the market for Windows Phone. In the near term, we plan to drive Windows Phone volume by targeting the more affordable smartphone segments, which are the fastest growing segments of the market, with Lumia. In addition to the portfolio already planned, we plan to deliver additional lower-cost Lumia devices by shifting select future Nokia X designs and products to Windows Phone devices. We expect to make this shift immediately while continuing to sell and support existing Nokia X products.

To win in the higher price segments, we will focus on delivering great breakthrough products in alignment with major milestones ahead from both the Windows team and the Applications and Services Group. We will ensure that the very best experiences and scenarios from across the company will be showcased on our products. We plan to take advantage of innovation from the Windows team, like Universal Windows Apps, to continue to enrich the Windows application ecosystem. And in the very lowest price ranges, we plan to run our first phones business for maximum efficiency with a smaller team.
...

https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...ul14%2F07-17announcement2.aspx&token=AhDCBmIo


Tom Warren backpedaled a bit:

Faisal B. Ahmed ‏@FaisalBAhmed ? Jul 17
@MSFTY @tomwarren IIRC Tom said Android app support is coming

Tom Warren ‏@tomwarren ? Jul 17
@FaisalBAhmed @MSFTY I never specifically said that, no. They have been evaluating it for months

https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/489751466786037760

But, who knows?

 

[a5cent]

I think WP users like Live tiles and the Modern UI, so Microsoft should motivate developers to adapt their Android apps to WP. Developers have incentives too, profits are related to the quality of the app. But, if users have to choose between -Android app without any adaptation- and no app, I think most would choose the former.

So how do you think that would impact MS' ability to achieve their goal of universal apps, that they've been working on for the last four years?

Wouldn't it be ironic, if on the dawn of being able to provide a single API set for all of MS' operating systems, they'd go and introduce an entirely new foreign API, that is controlled by Google, but can also be used to target concepts native to Windows?

I think MS needs WP app development to kick universal app development into motion. Wouldn't introducing Windows focused APIs on top of the Android APIs cause most developers to develop WP apps solely using the Android APIs, and cause them to leave universal apps by the way side?

 

[BenGutt]

Everyone is thinking it's android on wp, but has anyone thought that maybe Microsoft has come up with a way to port windows phone apps to android?

That's be a MASSIVE+ to writing for windows phone first and then just exporting to google play? Universal apps across, Windows Phone, Windows tablet, Windows desktop, Android Tablet and Android Phone.

It's probably not that far fetched, Microsoft can probably translate every API call to the relevant android ones, and as android isn't locked down, as long as you can do it in WP you can do it in android. Following that line of thought, nothing stopping it from being exported to apple either.

 

[MikeLip]

Everyone is thinking it's android on wp, but has anyone thought that maybe Microsoft has come up with a way to port windows phone apps to android?

That's be a MASSIVE+ to writing for windows phone first and then just exporting to google play? Universal apps across, Windows Phone, Windows tablet, Windows desktop, Android Tablet and Android Phone.

It's probably not that far fetched, Microsoft can probably translate every API call to the relevant android ones, and as android isn't locked down, as long as you can do it in WP you can do it in android. Following that line of thought, nothing stopping it from being exported to apple either.

That's a really interesting idea, on paper. I don't mean writing universal apps - that's definitely a good idea and people have wanted to do that since, I don't know, forever. And I can see where you're going - write for WP, then easily sell to Android. But perhaps not the reverse. That would instantly expand the market for your apps, plus vastly increase the incentive to write for WP. Win-win for MS. I like it. More fart apps for everyone! Seriously, yeah. Sounds good. But I'm not sure that's whats meant here. I think the idea was to implement a VM that runs Android, much like BB did. I guess we'll see if it even happens.

 

[a5cent]

Everyone is thinking it's android on wp, but has anyone thought that maybe Microsoft has come up with a way to port windows phone apps to android?

That's be a MASSIVE+ to writing for windows phone first and then just exporting to google play? Universal apps across, Windows Phone, Windows tablet, Windows desktop, Android Tablet and Android Phone.

It's probably not that far fetched, Microsoft can probably translate every API call to the relevant android ones, and as android isn't locked down, as long as you can do it in WP you can do it in android. Following that line of thought, nothing stopping it from being exported to apple either.

Yes, I've thought about that too. I don't think it's far fetched. I'm just not sure how good of an experience you could get out of such an app on Android.

Definitely a much better idea than Android apps on WP. Just wish some leak would be more along those lines.

 

[colinkiama]

Maybe if the universal apps fail then for gdr1 we might have......Android apps on Windows Phone WTF

 

[rodan01]

Everyone is thinking it's android on wp, but has anyone thought that maybe Microsoft has come up with a way to port windows phone apps to android?

That's be a MASSIVE+ to writing for windows phone first and then just exporting to google play? Universal apps across, Windows Phone, Windows tablet, Windows desktop, Android Tablet and Android Phone.

It's probably not that far fetched, Microsoft can probably translate every API call to the relevant android ones, and as android isn't locked down, as long as you can do it in WP you can do it in android. Following that line of thought, nothing stopping it from being exported to apple either.

Any impact that you expect from this would happen really slow. Developers won't drop their Android apps to start a new WP app that can also run in Android with an alien UI.
If you are thinking of reusing c# code but with a native UI for Android, there is a product called Xamarin that already does that.

The benefit of supporting Android apps in WP is that It would help to close the app gap right now.

 

[rodan01]

So how do you think that would impact MS' ability to achieve their goal of universal apps, that they've been working on for the last four years?

Wouldn't it be ironic, if on the dawn of being able to provide a single API set for all of MS' operating systems, they'd go and introduce an entirely new foreign API, that is controlled by Google, but can also be used to target concepts native to Windows?

I think MS needs WP app development to kick universal app development into motion. Wouldn't introducing Windows focused APIs on top of the Android APIs cause most developers to develop WP apps solely using the Android APIs, and cause them to leave universal apps by the way side?

Dependency on Google looks worst than It really is. Android is open source so MS can continue with their own thing if they have to. Because of the fragmentation of Android and the big market share of AOSP, It's unlikely that Google could introduce an incompatible change to impact WP. Developers have to support the old APIs for hundred of millions of users, anyways, so a real impact could take years to materialize.

APIs aren't an end in itself. If they need to drop Universal apps to get their objectives, they'd do it in a heartbeat. So, the real questions are what is the objective? Is Universal apps a good tool to get there? Or maybe Android apps is a better tool.

From the few emails of Nadella and Elop, I think they probably want to earn money selling services and hardware in the enterprise market. An end-to-end solution including cloud, office 365, identity, mdm, phones, tablets and PCs. If BYOD is really cooling down, this could be a good opportunity for WP.
Universal apps would be important because companies can standardize their software for the Windows platform, reusing the code in all the form factors, for a fraction of the cost, and with a consistent user experience. This will be even more appealing with the introduction of the Universal desktop app flavor. They could even build something like the Ubuntu Edge, supporting just Universal apps.

Although, they still need to sell a lot of phones in the consumer market to keep the product alive with apps and games, accessories and BOYD users. There is a range of users, from those that work all day, to those that spend the whole day in entertainment, It's like a normal distribution. An experience focused exclusively in productivity is too niche, so they need a good consumer experience, not the best but a good one.

If the priority is the consumer market they have to close the app gap right now, bring those Android apps already and kill that winrt nonsense.

 

[Karthik Naik]

What have I said that is wrong about Windows Phone? I'm not part of the Google hate parade, sorry if that bothers you.

You never have anything nice to say about anything non android
Someone mentions BB,ios or WP and you say android is superior

 

[Craigtrain]

You never have anything nice to say about anything non android
Someone mentions BB,ios or WP and you say android is superior

I've never mentioned Blackberry, so don't put words in my mouth. As for iOS, I love my iPad and I'm on it all the time.

There are some things that Android does better than Windows Phone, but that works both ways. Windows Phone is fantastic, and I love my device. If you can't handle my posts then I'd suggest you skip over them.

 

[Karthik Naik]

I've never mentioned Blackberry, so don't put words in my mouth. As for iOS, I love my iPad and I'm on it all the time.

There are some things that Android does better than Windows Phone, but that works both ways. Windows Phone is fantastic, and I love my device. If you can't handle my posts then I'd suggest you skip over them.

I fail to believe that given the way you speak about WP ,ios and BB10 because you constantly act as though features are missing in them and are present in android whereas these features are available cross platform
You were the one in the other thread saying BB10 was lame and that the op should have got a moto g instead of a z10
You said ios was bad because you couldn't add launchers and went on to say the same for WP

 

[Craigtrain]

You were the one in the other thread saying BB10 was lame and that the op should have got a moto g instead of a z10
You said ios was bad because you couldn't add launchers and went on to say the same for WP

You're delusional, I never made such a post. You should probably stop embarrassing yourself at this point, but feel free to post a link to the comment you are talking about that I made(you won't).

 

[Karthik Naik]

You're delusional, I never made such a post. You should probably stop embarrassing yourself at this point, but feel free to post a link to the comment you are talking about that I made(you won't).

lolwut dude im not ur servant find it yourself in the thread where someone asked which phone to buy
im embarrasing myself?? big facepalm,we all know who is embarrassing himself(hint-its not me)
as for proving stuff to you i dont give a dimes worth for people who insult others for no reason so yeah you can reflect back in your previous posts

 

[Craigtrain]

lolwut dude im not ur servant find it yourself in the thread where someone asked which phone to buy
im embarrasing myself??

I'm telling you, I've never posted in that thread or made such a comment. Asking me to "find it myself" is freaking ridiculous, especially considering IT IS YOU that is making this stupid accusation against me. There is a wonderful "search posts" function here at WPCentral, I'd suggest learning how to use it.

 

[Karthik Naik]

I'm telling you, I've never posted in that thread or made such a comment. Asking me to "find it myself" is freaking ridiculous, especially considering IT IS YOU that is making this stupid accusation against me. There is a wonderful "search posts" function here at WPCentral, I'd suggest learning how to use it.

Umm just what?? You are soo confused man you posted instructions for something you need to use
Are you that lazy that you want me to search instead of you
You post such lame stuff so you find it,I'm not sitting here to take orders from some dude off the Internet

 

[Craigtrain]

You post such lame stuff so you find it,I'm not sitting here to take orders from some dude off the Internet

You're just mad because I said you don't really own a Nexus 5, even though you keep telling everyone you do. Get over it dude.

 

[a5cent]

@Graigtrain
@Karthik Naik


[WARN]
If the WPC community is forced to read one more post relating to this most boring of little spats, I'll count it as taking this thread off topic and infract for it. Your argument stops here.[/WARN]

Thank you.