Okay, this is speculative, and I know it will be a challenging topic for some, but hear me out, and throw in your 2c.
Now, just imagine for a second that MSFT's vision is successful. That they make a single, one OS that runs on anything. From no screen on a remote server or sensor, to a phone or watch, to a folding tablet, PC, server right up to VR/AR - windows in full "4d" as they call it lol. With beautiful futuristic fluent design.
Imagine this is a single app platform, UWP, that has successfully captured ios mobility type touch apps via islandwood, and full powerful desktop apps and games via centennial. You can run illustrator, or gears of war on your smartphone, or in VR. You can run snapchat on your PC. ALL the software.
It's a big vision and there's _a lot_ of ifs, but consider the competition:
iOS apps only run natively on ARM. OSX apps only run natively on x86. To get either to run on the other you'd need emulation - so to create something that runs natively on both - you'd need an entirely new app system.
And of course, you'd need all the products that run it, in the hands of consumers, so developers, slowly, from stratch start to make scalable apps. Essentially you'd need a new hybrid OS with an entirely new app platform. And if its iOS based, you have to emulate OSX, and vice versa.
Then there's Android. They are currently working on Fushia (their hybrid OS, its been leaked, its in a pretty primitive state right now, and kind of looks like its full of advertising).
Android doesn't have the hardware problem, but it is entirely mobile centric - the apps don't scale, the funding isn't desktop scale/quality and in general people don't want to run android apps on a full desktop, even if the OS "was there".
So, with fushia, google needs to do the same thing (and they are), create an entirely new app system, and run the old stuff under emulation. New hybrid OS, new app platform, patch on a runtime for the old stuff - Start from stratch-ish.
And get those devices, a whole range of them, into the hands of consumers, so devs are inclined to write apps for it, rather than just do android apps.
These are the same sorts of problems MSFT has already been fighting with. Getting users on board, getting devs on board, getting OEMS onboard and trying to phase out the old platform.
MSFT is already some years into their plan. They already have some scaling of OS (more to come), they already have a universal platform, that both scales and runs across hardware and a decent number of apps within it. They are about to release the emulation for arm, and the mixed reality platform. Short of cshell, and OEM support, a but of marketing flair, and a few more chess pieces, they are close to things starting to really come together. As soon as those centennials and islandwoods start to trickle into full UWP, things are in motion.
Assuming they are successful (big if), and they can have enough devices in each catergory (biggest if IMO), such as, one small screen, one no screen and one mixed reality, for example, to justify coding the scaling for everything - is it already almost impossible to catch up, or fast approaching that point?
If you could buy a phone that runs scaled desktop apps, scalable mobile apps, can be a computer or phone, can run full desktop games in a touch friendly manner etc, or an AR platform that can run all those apps/games, or a desktop that runs mobile apps as well, _scaled for desktop_......would you want to buy one that can only run non-scaling phone apps, or non-scaling desktop apps?
Is apple and google, too late to market with their hybrid OSes?
Now, let the flamethrowing and face eating commence
(Seriously though, could be a fun topic to discuss civilly)
Now, just imagine for a second that MSFT's vision is successful. That they make a single, one OS that runs on anything. From no screen on a remote server or sensor, to a phone or watch, to a folding tablet, PC, server right up to VR/AR - windows in full "4d" as they call it lol. With beautiful futuristic fluent design.
Imagine this is a single app platform, UWP, that has successfully captured ios mobility type touch apps via islandwood, and full powerful desktop apps and games via centennial. You can run illustrator, or gears of war on your smartphone, or in VR. You can run snapchat on your PC. ALL the software.
It's a big vision and there's _a lot_ of ifs, but consider the competition:
iOS apps only run natively on ARM. OSX apps only run natively on x86. To get either to run on the other you'd need emulation - so to create something that runs natively on both - you'd need an entirely new app system.
And of course, you'd need all the products that run it, in the hands of consumers, so developers, slowly, from stratch start to make scalable apps. Essentially you'd need a new hybrid OS with an entirely new app platform. And if its iOS based, you have to emulate OSX, and vice versa.
Then there's Android. They are currently working on Fushia (their hybrid OS, its been leaked, its in a pretty primitive state right now, and kind of looks like its full of advertising).
Android doesn't have the hardware problem, but it is entirely mobile centric - the apps don't scale, the funding isn't desktop scale/quality and in general people don't want to run android apps on a full desktop, even if the OS "was there".
So, with fushia, google needs to do the same thing (and they are), create an entirely new app system, and run the old stuff under emulation. New hybrid OS, new app platform, patch on a runtime for the old stuff - Start from stratch-ish.
And get those devices, a whole range of them, into the hands of consumers, so devs are inclined to write apps for it, rather than just do android apps.
These are the same sorts of problems MSFT has already been fighting with. Getting users on board, getting devs on board, getting OEMS onboard and trying to phase out the old platform.
MSFT is already some years into their plan. They already have some scaling of OS (more to come), they already have a universal platform, that both scales and runs across hardware and a decent number of apps within it. They are about to release the emulation for arm, and the mixed reality platform. Short of cshell, and OEM support, a but of marketing flair, and a few more chess pieces, they are close to things starting to really come together. As soon as those centennials and islandwoods start to trickle into full UWP, things are in motion.
Assuming they are successful (big if), and they can have enough devices in each catergory (biggest if IMO), such as, one small screen, one no screen and one mixed reality, for example, to justify coding the scaling for everything - is it already almost impossible to catch up, or fast approaching that point?
If you could buy a phone that runs scaled desktop apps, scalable mobile apps, can be a computer or phone, can run full desktop games in a touch friendly manner etc, or an AR platform that can run all those apps/games, or a desktop that runs mobile apps as well, _scaled for desktop_......would you want to buy one that can only run non-scaling phone apps, or non-scaling desktop apps?
Is apple and google, too late to market with their hybrid OSes?
Now, let the flamethrowing and face eating commence
(Seriously though, could be a fun topic to discuss civilly)
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