Why did UWP not take off?

[vEEP pEEP]

Or did it? What happened? Is it because W10 It's a desktop platform that has no relation to mobile? Did MS not back it? Too few interested developers? It's about to explode and there will be 1000 new apps?

Thoughts opinions?

Mr. V

 

[slooksterpsv]

While I think UWP has yet to hit the market as hard as I anticipated it would, I think there's a few issues with it:
1) It requires the Microsoft Store to install apps. This is good and bad. Good because it centralizes app installs, but bad because you can't use another method to distribute them. This is probably the biggest roadblock.
2) Multi-platform environment. A lot of apps are focused on Web services because its multi-platform. If you have a browser, you can use the app.

I do have a store dev account, but I develop more in WPF because I may want to package my app for use elsewhere. But, now that you brought this up, I'm going to port one of my apps to UWP as I'd like to use it on my phone as well.

Give it about another year when Redstone 2 comes out. I think that will help create a stronger bridge between app markets.

 

[xandros9]

1. People don't really use apps that much on laptops and desktops.
2. Not a huge mobile market, period.
3. Microsoft's rebooting and lack of support for Windows 10 Mobile isn't really attracting developers and burning existing ones.
4. I don't know about the developer tools so I can't talk about dev friendliness.

 

[slooksterpsv]

1. People don't really use apps that much on laptops and desktops.
2. Not a huge mobile market, period.
3. Microsoft's rebooting and lack of support for Windows 10 Mobile isn't really attracting developers and burning existing ones.
4. I don't know about the developer tools so I can't talk about dev friendliness.

XAML and C#/C++/VB - there's some nifty features they need to implement in WPF such as virtualizing wrap panel.

 

[daimv]

You could use another distribution method. Of course the problem there is monetization. But you CAN install apps from other places e.g. Interop tools

 

[daimv]

Also, I think UWPs are pretty cool. Multi platform is quite convenient (even for Windows IOT Core), and the development environment is quite nice.

 

[flashbaax]

One major selling point of UWP is "One App - All deveice (classes)". But currently there is only one deceive class with an attractive reach: Desktop Windows. And this class does need UWP builds.
All other Win10 deceive classes (mobile, hololense, band, xbox) don't exists anymore or are really niche. Exepect XBOX, but no one misses Whatsapp and Snapchat on xbox.

 

[daimv]

What do you mean they don't exist anymore? That's a bit fatalist. Hololens is still a very new thing. Mobile does have a small marketplace, but still a few millions there. IOT Core is niche indeed, but as the "internet of things" world keeps growing, it might grow too. Though the market is a different one. And band... There still are the remaining ones although I don't really know much about band. There is still a chance for future bands next year, though no way to know, that's true. Of course the main target is desktop+mobile ,and apps that work well with this duality are pretty cool, and more are still coming out.

 

[daimv]

Also Continuum is pretty awesome, I carry my phone instead of my laptop most of the time now.

 

[Krystianpants]

1.) Windows 10 is not finished even as the initial vision that MS said would take 2 years. Yep only 1 year has passed since that statement was made. The API is not finished and is constantly being worked on. In fact, a lot of the partnerships MS has for creating UWP apps are there for them to work together and improve the API based on different needs that may arise. This is for games and apps. Compared to w32 it is not yet there and it will take some time. You can't do all the same stuff and a lot of features require more complexity than something w32 offers.
2.) An app ecosystem doesn't grow that rapidly in one year. There are many apps/games that took longer than that to even make for ios/android. Every developer isn't magically going to squeeze out a fully working app/game especially with a limited API.
3.) W32 has been around for 24 years. Everything you see out there is a mass accumulation of apps over that period of time. This isn't something that within 1 year became a huge app ecosystem and success. Not sure why people expect any more from UWP which has a very early unfinished API.

This is MS's long term project. And yes it will be successful. MS will likely still be a big computing player years from now even if Google/Apple evolve. As computing merges into different form factors the market share will likely be dominated by MS/Google or even between MS/Google/Apple. Apple hasn't really shown any signs of working towards a more futuristic vision but they could very well be. MS is thinking beyond the phone and creating this adaptive OS in order to be able to bring hardware quicker to consumers without all the hassles of new software every time the computing landscape changes. So windows 10 is really always going to be ready for new tech. Compare that to blackberry who had a great OS for what it was meant for but as the landscape changed this OS was built for this very specific purpose and tightened in a way that any changes would require a rewrite of the OS. Operating systems take a long time to make and keep secure. BB10 took too long, and it wasn't anything special by the time it came. MS suffered something similar with mobile. Here they had this Desktop OS that is great but it wasn't meant to adapt to anything but the desktop environment and this architecture. So new tech required a different OS and different developer tools. All that takes time. And they were always behind so now they learned their lesson that the software should never leave you behind.

 

[Panadidas]

Uwp is cool

 

[TechFreak1]

Lack of focus in the consumer space and mind share.

It's all and well saying it's going to cause a paradigm shift in computing but if there is no mass adoption then how is this "shift" supposed to happen?

A shift only occurs when there is sufficient momentum which causes a snow ball effect thus in turn is able to retain it's momentum ad-infinitum until the next technological disruption.

The trickle down effect will take years from the enterprise as unlike Windows Mobile 6.x there are not many OEMs cranking out WM10 devices and Android was pretty much non existent in the days of yore. Fast forward to now...

Microsoft needs to compete with Apple and Google pretty much every where in order to retain the UWP platform - the rules of old no longer apply. They cannot simply rest on their laurels again and concede the entire mobile market to Apple and Google once that happens - "Sure it will be difficult not impossible" - but that would be a understatement.

I imagine Hololens will take about 2 years to mature, Bots and AI perhaps slightly longer given the uneasiness the mass public will having a "mic in always on mode" (how else will these Bots interact without touch?)

We had Nokia, they pushed and obtained a lot of momentum but now we do not have an OEM willing to do the same. So when I say the rules of old no longer apply - take a look at SpaceX they have been able to design a booster that returns to the launch pad. A few years ago people thought that was impossible.

Never the less we are 12 days away from the October 26th event, it would be interesting to see what they show case.

 

[AndyCalling]

Originally posted by flashbaax
One major selling point of UWP is "One App - All deveice (classes)". But currently there is only one deceive class with an attractive reach: Desktop Windows. And this class does need UWP builds.
All other Win10 deceive classes (mobile, hololense, band, xbox) don't exists anymore or are really niche. Exepect XBOX, but no one misses Whatsapp and Snapchat on xbox.

And tablet Windows, and convertible Windows, basically any touch Windows device out there. Have you tried x86/x64 apps on a touch device {shudder}?