Originally Posted by
damonator98 I sicerely don't understand people saying that they don't want android apps and that they're glad astoria was cancelled. Well guess what, you acctualy don't have to install or use them (android apps) at all, while many would benefit from them. It'd have been cool if they left astoria in special astoria build ring, so if you wanted you could simply install wm version with that ability and if you're alergic to "crap from Google", fine, install different builds. Maybe it'd have made me stay with windows phone...
Here's what I see regarding Astoria and why it should not have been a thing.
1. It's short-sighted, trading short term benefits for long-term ecosystem problems. We didn't have to use them, but users would still be affected.
See Blackberry 10 and it's Android layer. Native app development has gone down the tubes and Blackberry 10 is on the way out.
If it was the catch-all solution, I'd probably still have my Q10 and the Priv probably wouldn't exist then.
So it would band-aid current user's issues somewhat, but could ultimately doom efforts in the future.
1b. It alienates Windows developers. Why should they spend extra effort for Windows Phone when they can just half-heartedly submit whatever APK they make anyway and tell users to just try that. (which becomes even more important when the Universal Windows Platform comes into play)
2. Google Play Services
We would still be unable to use many apps because we don't have Play Services and neither does Blackberry. Snapchat requires them, as does Yik Yak and countless other applications. It wasn't a thing on Blackberry, it's not going to be a thing on Windows.
3. It still wouldn't work quite right.
4. In short, the best Android phone is an Android phone. Why would someone get a Windows Phone to run some of the same apps more poorly?
