Despite mass adoption rate of Windows 10, developers still tepid on creating apps...

[mariusmuntean]

Building a Windows Universal app is useless at the moment. There are no possibilites to obtain huge revenue. It only takes money for the developer or company.
Google Admob is not coming to W10, it also lacks support on Windows Phone 8.1 runtime, so it's over. I asked Google Admob around one year ago, and they haven't planned anything...
That's a substantial reason for me and many other developers to disregard Windows Phone, sad but true. The Microsoft ad mediator is laughable by the way, if you see the advertisers :grin:, it sucks definitely.

I wonder how much time it will take for the fanboys here to start commenting that you are evil ) and not like them, praising a company that does not care for it's own platform and users.

 

[BrandonLiveuh]

Myself being a more mature Windows Mobile user, I find that the platform already has what I'm looking for in the first place.
- Web browser
- Email, calendar, contacts
- Music/video player
- Photo viewer
- Full fidelity MS Office document create/editing
- Remote access software in Remote desktop and Citrix Receiver
- Glance-able information on the home screen
Personally I see most mobile users as newbies still trying to figure out where mobile devices fit in their day to day lives. I've been using Windows Mobile since it was called Pocket PC. I've seem almost all my needs eventually meet in todays mobile offerings. Android is there, IOS is there and Windows Mobile is there. Now app developers just need to refine things, make them simpler, integrate into the cloud better and start making desktop style content creation apps. As far as I see it, there's not much that is left to do besides making that mobile device in your pocket the one device you use for everything. That's where I see Continuum being a huge leap into the future if it's ever widely adopted. Content creation is the next big hurdle to overcome with mobile. Continuum will help greatly in giving the user a work space with enough room to manipulate their content. Hopefully the processing power is there. Who knows maybe we'll find that more complex and processor intensive tasks like video editing, music and podcast creation/editing, layered image creation (like Photoshop) is good enough on Window Mobile with Continuum. But if the processing power isn't there, then app developers aren't going to bother. If Windows Mobile developers don't make the content creation apps then Windows Mobile will be just like every other mobile platform and will probably stay number 3 or just kind of disappear.
Windows Mobile still does have a chance to become the Mobile OS of choice for the business though, so that's always a possibility. Maybe that's where it will grow and gain some following.

 

[Daniel Stevenson Sutton]

I know what you are saying, I work in Access, SQL Server and Excel but then the PowerBI app is great for checking data, the MSN Money apps is a good tool for some light research, the Universal Lync and email client are nice for quick communication...

Basically I would say the mobile nature of an app makes them perfect for quick reference tools, which there are tasks that fits. Build data in x64 read it in an app.

Well it's how I tend to work at least.

 

[msanda]

Microsoft biggest problem for windows 10 and apps is the lack of .net developers in the start-up world. face it. 90% of all modern apps that people talk about or use, are made in other languages. Start-ups are looking for people that code in the Objective-c, Java ( Android-ish) and web platforms ( html5, nodejs etc). non of these are native to windows in any fashion. Microsoft solution with "bridge" is still under development. until the other languages are made to run comparable to native .net application startups will not invest in time and resources to create windows apps.

The other main problem msft has, is the straight up disgust most startups have about Microsoft. most of these employees did not even get affected but Microsoft in the early 90's but have a resounding hate for anything Microsoft. This is a huge problem and one that takes years of trust building for people to get over.. Microsoft is on the right step for now but will need to do more and more everyday to win trust back. until these 2 things are fixed there is nothing Microsoft can do but play the waiting game, or just partner with app developers and offer their resources to handle the porting of apps.. the problem here is that mobile is continuously evolving and no one in the start-up fields are remotely waiting for Microsoft. if Microsoft was to disappear today none of them will notice it.

 

[Petru Moldovan]

Microsoft biggest problem for windows 10 and apps is the lack of .net developers in the start-up world. face it. 90% of all modern apps that people talk about or use, are made in other languages. Start-ups are looking for people that code in the Objective-c, Java ( Android-ish) and web platforms ( html5, nodejs etc). non of these are native to windows in any fashion. Microsoft solution with "bridge" is still under development. until the other languages are made to run comparable to native .net application startups will not invest in time and resources to create windows apps.

The other main problem msft has, is the straight up disgust most startups have about Microsoft. most of these employees did not even get affected but Microsoft in the early 90's but have a resounding hate for anything Microsoft. This is a huge problem and one that takes years of trust building for people to get over.. Microsoft is on the right step for now but will need to do more and more everyday to win trust back. until these 2 things are fixed there is nothing Microsoft can do but play the waiting game, or just partner with app developers and offer their resources to handle the porting of apps.. the problem here is that mobile is continuously evolving and no one in the start-up fields are remotely waiting for Microsoft. if Microsoft was to disappear today none of them will notice it.

html5, nodejs etc is one of the main ways to do apps since WP8 (the others are C++ - mainly for DirectX-based games - and .NET). There is also there a wizard which can convert a site based on HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript to an application with no programming involved there. The problem is that people don't care about these because there is not enough money in this business yet.

 

[msanda]

html5, nodejs etc is one of the main ways to do apps since WP8 (the others are C++ - mainly for DirectX-based games - and .NET). There is also there a wizard which can convert a site based on HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript to an application with no programming involved there. The problem is that people don't care about these because there is not enough money in this business yet.

Point taken. but I believe you missed the keyword I stated above and that is native. html5, js, obecjtive c, java are not native to the windows platform. none of these are compiled down to run on windows. they are run on top of emulators and some runtime environments. The point being a html5 js application on android will run better than on windows phone on identical hardware. and the cost for developers to improve on performance just because of "windows" is not an incentive. Msft has to make these first party applications. and hence the 'bridge'; until this is out developers will just wait and see and even with bridge, unless performance is equal or better than their counterparts developers will always say "well performance was not good, so we decided to stop production on it".

msft has to show why their platform is better and not play catchup. they must incentivizes developers to trust them and offer better than the competition revenue ( this does not necessarily only mean sales but also advertisements such as spotlights on behalf of the companies)

 

[elindalyne]

What are you talking about? HTML5/JS applications don't run on top of emulators in the WP environment...

 

[UnnDunn]

The biggest problem I feel is that the entire culture of "mobile" app development revolves around making clients for web-based online services. There is very little focus on creating purely offline or offline-centric apps. The big opportunity for Windows app developers will be to create offline-centric apps that roam from desktop to phone and back again.

 

[Krystianpants]

Point taken. but I believe you missed the keyword I stated above and that is native. html5, js, obecjtive c, java are not native to the windows platform. none of these are compiled down to run on windows. they are run on top of emulators and some runtime environments. The point being a html5 js application on android will run better than on windows phone on identical hardware. and the cost for developers to improve on performance just because of "windows" is not an incentive. Msft has to make these first party applications. and hence the 'bridge'; until this is out developers will just wait and see and even with bridge, unless performance is equal or better than their counterparts developers will always say "well performance was not good, so we decided to stop production on it".

msft has to show why their platform is better and not play catchup. they must incentivizes developers to trust them and offer better than the competition revenue ( this does not necessarily only mean sales but also advertisements such as spotlights on behalf of the companies)

"Native" is such a funny word. You can code in any language in Visual studio at this point and make it native. See, it's the compiler that makes it native code. It doesn't matter what language you use to write it. And what visual studio allows is for the compiler to compile natively for all platforms. Java for example will be converted to java byte code in which case the java runtime will use to create native code on the fly. It's part of why android has always been so slow. Though they have really changed things around and improved their just in time compilers. Objective-C once again all it does is converts it to what the machine will understand and that's basically the target that is selected. Things like metal were developed to get deeper into the OS and allow you to do a lot more, and once again Visual studio will support all this. Microsoft's attack plan is develop 1 tool that all developers can use on any platform and with any language that they are familiar with. They simply need to select the target and the compiler knows what to do.

 

[KSilcox]

We have been working on the Windows 10 UWP version of You-Doo over here at Plutanium.com. It does take time to get everything working in the new environment. More time for more complex apps. I'm sure there are many developers working diligently on banging out their own UWP versions of their apps. I expect to see lots of them popping up over the next 6 months.

 

[vcarvega]

A lot of the arguments being posted exist on mobile platforms as well... Both Android and iOS have perfectly capable browsers. Apps take up storage on either devices and do not affect performance. None of these are legitimate reasons why we shouldn't see Universal Apps take off.

If anything, I think that we have to continue to see a surge in devices like the Surfaces Pro 4 and hybrids by other OEM's. When those numbers start to overtake the iPad and iPhone, consumers will be visiting the Windows Store in higher volumes... and allow Microsoft to boast the type of numbers to developers that draw attention.

I don't see desktop users or traditional laptop users being as interested in using apps. But as a Surface user, I'm often interested in using a "tablet" version of some of the software or websites I'd typically visit on my desktop. I'm not sure what the true solution is... but I do really wish to see more developer support for Universal Apps. Because the ones that are done well are pretty awesome.

 

[Sergiu Baiatu]

What apps? You can install whatever you want the well known old way. I installed Steam and from there any game that I need. Vast majority of apps you can buy on the internet from the companies themselves. Why would anyone go to the windows store where they have to pay to MS commissions for that?

 

[Sergiu Baiatu]

A lot of the arguments being posted exist on mobile platforms as well... Both Android and iOS have perfectly capable browsers. Apps take up storage on either devices and do not affect performance. None of these are legitimate reasons why we shouldn't see Universal Apps take off.

You don't have choice on iOS/Android, you either download the apps from the store or you don't have them at all. Not so on Windows where you can download the apps from their developers directly.

 

[Laura Knotek]

You don't have choice on iOS/Android, you either download the apps from the store or you don't have them at all. Not so on Windows where you can download the apps from their developers directly.

That isn't necessarily the case with Android. I'm beta testing MixRadio for Android. I downloaded the apk using a browser, after opening a link in an email from the developers, and installed the app that way.

 

[mariusmuntean]

same goes for IOS. Get the certificate from the developer and link to install the app.

 

[rhapdog]

Despite Windows 10 being adopted at a massive rate, it seems developers are tepid as to the prospect of creating apps. In some cases, existing 8.1 apps are still left rotting while new apps seem few and far between. We're about 3 months since release with over 110 million installs.

What is going to convince developers to look at making Universal Windows Apps?

Here's the thing. Developers that have ignored making apps for Microsoft for so long will not turn their habits around in a few short months. There are a number of major developers that will have full-blown apps coming to Windows 10 soon, but contrary to popular belief, it takes time to write an app. It's not a weekend project. Three months just isn't enough time to create a quality app. You want a more realistic time-frame? Try waiting until Windows 10 Mobile has been released for a full year and then judge whether or not apps are starting to come to the platform. That's what it will take. Many developers are waiting on the Mobile before they get started to make for easier testing across devices, as some like to test on a physical device instead of an emulator. Emulators are fine, but in my experience, I would start off testing on an emulator, and once I felt it was near ready, would always move it to a physical device before a release. I'm retired from programming, but it's still common practice among quite a few in the field.

 

[Krystianpants]

We have been working on the Windows 10 UWP version of You-Doo over here at Plutanium.com. It does take time to get everything working in the new environment. More time for more complex apps. I'm sure there are many developers working diligently on banging out their own UWP versions of their apps. I expect to see lots of them popping up over the next 6 months.

Never heard of the app but looked it up after your post and it seems pretty interesting. Glad to see you guys will have one for windows 10.

 

[Major Plonquer]

People need to remember that there's a HUGE difference between mobile phone apps that are nothing more than a few hundred lines of kiddie-script Java or C# code and Windows applications which can take dozens of man-years to design and build and can run to millions of lines of code. You can't run a business on a mobile phone - unless your business makes money from fart noises.

 

[runamuck83]

Can someone explain to me why it is the new unproven Apple TV launches with high profile developer backing and apps - yet an OS with a solid user base with growing numbers (Windows 10) can barely muster up support from Facebook?

Developer bias? Microsoft hatred? Lack of user knowledge of Windows (App) Store???

 

[illidanx]

Can someone explain to me why it is the new unproven Apple TV launches with high profile developer backing and apps - yet an OS with a solid user base with growing numbers (Windows 10) can barely muster up support from Facebook?

Developer bias? Microsoft hatred? Lack of user knowledge of Windows (App) Store???

Because:
1. 100% of users on apple TV need app vs. a small percentage of Windows 10 users (you can say all you and your friends use app on windows 10 but the reality is most people don't bother with store apps).
2. Dev can make much more money on apple TV than on Windows because: (a) apple users are known to be more well-off and more likely to spend money, (b) apple has a good ad platform unlike the pathetic Microsoft's Pubcenter.
3. It's pretty much the same code as iOS anyway so they just need to port their existing code.