How many good apps are needed to fill the app gap ? What do you think?

[dharma teja1]

How many good apps are needed to fill the app gap ? What do you think?

 

[xandros9]

Thing is, it's no longer just an app gap.

It's an app gap, app quality/stability gap, lack of phones gap, lack of any new features gap, lack of effort gap, still many bugs gap. Breaks my heart.

 

[Guytronic]

^^^
So true...
Probably beyond recovery at this point.

 

[PFSP]

Thing is, it's no longer just an app gap.

It's an app gap, app quality/stability gap, lack of phones gap, lack of any new features gap, lack of effort gap, still many bugs gap. Breaks my heart.

Don't forget the market share gap (yeah I know chicken/egg) They can (and have tried) potentially fill the app gap by cutting deals with the bigger players to make windows mobile version of their apps. But until there is a big enough market share new apps won't be developed for WM.

I think the only hope is W10 for ARM. When your "phone" is running a full version of the OS, then all the regular windows apps become windows mobile apps. And developers can more easily develop for all windows platforms....

 

[SlideWRX]

Apps for all the social media platforms that are from the platform itself; not third party. Google apps (mail/ maps/ etc). Apple apps (iTunes, mail, maybe even maps). Realistically, there are third party apps all around that cover most of these uses, but people apparently don't consider them.

Bank apps would be the next one I think. Banks should be trying to do most of their stuff through a secure website I think; even taking pics of checks for deposit should be able to be done through html5, although mobile web browsers may still have issues with it.

All in all, about 100 or so apps would do it. The rest is largely fluff, especially when considering the apple/android stores may have 10000 flashlight apps while we may only have 100 (boohoo?), even though everyone has a flashlight function built in...

There is a lot of garbage when you get past the most used apps.

 

[xandros9]

When your "phone" is running a full version of the OS, then all the regular windows apps become windows mobile apps. And developers can more easily develop for all windows platforms....

The problem with that is the apps I use on my phone and the apps/programs/etc I use on my laptop are with almost no overlap save for a web browser, office applications and mail/calendar.

 

[N_LaRUE]

It's not so much about what apps are needed so much as being able to have the latest apps that come out that people want to use and keep them updated.

Both Apple and Android have issues where one platform has apps the other doesn't. So it's not just purely a Windows issue. However, it's more likely apps will usually cross over to those platforms than to Windows. (though there are Apple app developer snobs)

I know there's talk of the future with web apps, VR and AR etc but currently, it's apps and lets be realistic here, everything used on an OS is still an app at the end of the day.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

There's really only a few thousand highly used apps at best, the rest are games and things most people don't need/want or there are dozens of similar apps.

I honestly don't use the windows store much on desktop or tablet. Think my Surface Pro has 2 store apps on it right now, Minecraft and Instagram, I use regular exe programs or the web browser for everything still.

 

[kaktus1389]

How many good apps are needed to fill the app gap ? What do you think?

In my opinion Windows Phone would have lived much longer as 8.1 with much bigger market share if Google and apple would offer their services for Windows Phones as MS does on their respectful platforms. A huge factor between the younger generation is/was also the lack of Snapchat and quality social media apps. From my experience, I see my friends mostly using Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, sometimes YouTube but other than that they mostly just play games on their phones. Of course many people could use banking apps, but those would come with users - the core population that is buying phones these days are 90's and 00's people and they certainly need social media apps the most.

 

[missionsparta]

Yep, yep, and yep

 

[TechKnow_IE]

App gap is no longer the issue.
Microsoft letting Windows 10 Mobile die on the vine is the issue.

If Microsoft don't have confidence in the platform, then developers won't either.
If developers won't gain anything from the effort to develop for the platform, they won't build apps.
If there are no apps, there are no users.
If there are no users, Microsoft feels justified in letting the platform die.

Even with Andromeda with Progressive Web Apps (PWA) there is a lot riding on it's shoulders, Microsoft face an uphill challenge to woo back developers, enterprise and consumers.
Even with PWAs being automatically added to the Store, Microsoft may face issues with developers who didn't want their App in the Store.

 

[Bobvfr]

The problem isn't the app gap on Windows Phone, sorry big fan here using a 950XL, but it's dead.

The problem is getting developers to write apps for the Windows store at all (For Windows 10), so many companies think, "We have a web page so why do we need an app at all", the company I work for is one of them.

If I search the windows store using our companies name there is one music download, nothing else. Yet they have apps for Android and Mac, nothing for Windows, and it is this missing button on most "Download our app" areas with a Google and Mac button, nothing from Windows of any version, that is the longer term issue.

By abandoning WP MS have almost shot themselves in the foot regards the whole UWP push, if they abandon UWP, then Windows on tablets makes less sense, and Windows is looking at a slow death, then MS becomes a dead giant waiting to be picked over by asset strippers.

I actually believe MS will produce a handheld device, it wont be called a phone and it will run Windows 10, not Windows mobile or Windows Phone, and maybe they can keep the UWP strategy, but they are going about it in the worst possible way, alienate your fans, turn your customers away, give them no hope for the future.

Will the WP app gap ever be sorted, NO it's dead. Will the Windows app gap be sorted, possibly but only if MS get back into the "No it's not a mobile its a small PC with enabled telephony" market and then bloody well stick at it for more than 18 months and sell the thing.

 

[Jovan198]

First time posting here:

It's going to take big names to close the app gap. And Windows 10 ARM or desktop simply will not cut it. The closing of the app gap needs to come on the mobile side.

 

[realwarder]

There is no market for Windows Mobile these days, primary because Microsoft themselves have done everything to kill it:

- "We'll make phones" -> Made no phones
- "mobile OS 'feature2'" -> Not being supported
- "marketing $$$" -> None
- "<silence>" -> It's not something they actually want to do

They needed totally the opposite to each of these from about 4 years. 4 years of this means guess what, no other company in their right mind cares about supporting Windows app development. It's a mindset thing.

Poll 100% of CTO's today and about 0.1% would say they'd consider writing an app for Windows. Not just mobile now either, but desktop too. As what is the point of writing a UWP app that can only run on Windows 10 when they can write a Win32 app and run on Windows 7 too. Guess what, Microsoft are doing this too -> Skype Desktop app.

Let's look into the future.... without a third mobile OS, deemed unnecessary by a certain CEO.

Where are apps being written? Android and iOS.
Where can these run? Mobile and Desktop like environments.
What are people familiar with? Android and iOS.
What devices will people buy? Android and iOS...

Where is Microsoft in this? The cloud.

...the problems are a lot bigger for Windows as a whole than an app difference on a currently irrelevant mobile OS.


And all this is from a strong Microsoft advocate and supporter.

 

[anon(5466678)]

How many good apps are needed to fill the app gap ? What do you think?

I didnt realize this was still being discussed, windows mobile is not savable at this point. Unless of course they can change the paradigm of mobile computing, which I think they already have the technology to do.

In my mind it goes like this, if you make a continuum enabled computer that can be worn/carried in a pocket or on a belt etc. Have that computer connect wirelessly to various screens and control devices (a smart watch, a smartphone/tablet touch screen device, and a traditional pc type setup with mouse and keyboard). Basically instead of having a separate computer for each one of these devices you carry around a single computer that can connect wirelessly to these interfaces.

On the app front there are a handful of categories that it needs to have full coverage, equal to that of the apple and android.

1) google apps - photos, maps, hangouts, gmail, drive, gsuite, youtube, home/chromecast, nest, the whole lot of them
2) social - snapchat is the one that i think is the biggest missing
3) financial - every bank that has an app needs to be available

It doesnt matter if you can get this one third party (even if it works better) and it doesnt matter if theres a work around for that one. Normal people dont do that stuff, and it becomes tedious.

 

[epakrat75]

How many good apps are needed to fill the app gap ? What do you think?

The gap is a red herring like so many others. It's a distraction from the reality of the situation. The reality as I see it is that Windows 10 Mobile will be replaced mobile devices that run Windows 10 on ARM using the already available Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. It won't be a mobile operating system anymore so the gap won't exist. Then the still prevalent mobile operating systems from Apple and Google can continue to convince people to stay on their toy operating systems while Microsoft offers the only full OS with any real public mindshare that runs the same apps on both the desktop and mobile devices. Device convergence has been happening for a while and the lines between phone and tablet are getting more and more blurry with time.

 

[Philip Hamm]

The problem isn't the app gap on Windows Phone, sorry big fan here using a 950XL, but it's dead.

The problem is getting developers to write apps for the Windows store at all (For Windows 10), so many companies think, "We have a web page so why do we need an app at all", the company I work for is one of them.

This.

UWP apps should have bridged the gap and made loads of great apps to run on tablets, phones, PCs, etc.. Incredibly cool concept but nobody came. Nobody started developing apps. If they have a web site that works with plug-ins that's all they need to cover PCs and nobody even cares about the Windows Store.

It's a sad state. I'd love a Dish Network app and an update to the MLB app. I still run the old MLB app from a few years ago that MLB pulled from the Windows 8.1 store on my Windows Surface tablet and it runs fantastic. The Dish Network web interface runs great on my Lenovo Yoga with the Sling plug-in but I'd like to have it run on my phone like it does on my old iPad.

I keep an old iPad around largely as a bridge to apps that I can't run on Windows.

 

[Bobaloba]

Get Google to make a proper YouTube app, get Snapchat on there, make Instagram run properly (runs like a dog on my 950 after the last couple of updates), bring Twitter in-line with iOS...

That's about it for me. I've got a year left until I can upgrade my handset for 'free', but I suspect I'll be looking for an affordable way out before then.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Poll 100% of CTO's today and about 0.1% would say they'd consider writing an app for Windows. Not just mobile now either, but desktop too. As what is the point of writing a UWP app that can only run on Windows 10 when they can write a Win32 app and run on Windows 7 too. Guess what, Microsoft are doing this too -> Skype Desktop app.

I think your 0.1% is generous.

 

[Anil Mandal]

likewise apple is using all the efforts from Google to success it's platform Windows mobile OS needed the same to regain it's name and fate