Originally Posted by
maya77 Things will change drastically with Windows 10, and yes, many more apps will become available to Windows users.
Why I think so?
1. I don't know about "official statistics" but I see more and more people switching to Windows phones lately (yes, I've converted some). Probably most people avoid Windows Phone because take advice from the Android users who'll surely discourage them with all the false thoughts they have about WP (actually they too haven't seen in their life). There are many misconceptions we have all heard about Windows Phones, and let's be honest - most of them are false.
2. Islandwood and Astoria will do they part for sure. IMHO developers must be stupid to not take a chance to offer their products to more potential users.
3. If not by original developers some apps will be ported "unofficially". Want it or not, it will happen before or later.
Allow me to counter-argument:
1 - I'm currently an Android user, having switched from WP. I do not recommend WP to anyone anymore. Simply because there's no app support for the platform and Microsoft's commitment to it is non-existent. I has been for the last 4 years and with the new direction, I don't see a future for WP. As for statistics...Ever since Nokia left, WP marketshare Worldwide has fallen from almost 4% to 2.5%. That means more and more people are opting to NOT pick up a Windows Phone.
2 - It's not that simple. They want to put in the work of porting the apps to WP and maintaining them. And with decreasing marketshare, companies just feel less inclined to even bother with a minimal fragment of the market. Islandwood and Astoria may prove very useful for apps that are though to run cross-devices. So, for example, Banking apps may benefit from it since even though Banks have no benefit in putting money on a WP app, they do if they're putting the app on Windows 10 PCs. And they do it because of Windows 10 PCs. WP gets a collateral benefit. However, for mobile-aimed apps, the PC Windows 10 users are not the target of developers. Mobile users are. And for mobile, there's the 2.5% quota.
3 - Unofficial ports will not be allowed in the Windows Store. Firstly because it's illegal. And secondly because the Windows Store still checks the apps for compliance with their terms of service. You may be able to sideload the apps into WP10 devices as you sort of can now on the preview, but the vast majority of the WP users will not even know they can do that let alone how to do it.