Microwhat?

This was my editorial in the latest Mobile newsletter, subscribe here.

I know there’s been a lot of Microsoft coverage on SitePoint recently, but I couldn’t let the news from the companies Build conference pass by without comment.

Put simply, Windows 10 will allow for existing Android Apps to be recompiled to run on the Windows platform. This is clearly a play by Microsoft to solve one of the biggest problems they have had with their mobile platform, a lack of apps.

It’s an interesting tactic, but not a completely new one, currently both Sailfish OS and Tizen allow for Android apps to run on their OSs, probably with the same reasoning.

Microsoft’s angle is slightly different, they are allowing you to recompile Android apps instead, this means the end result is something more native and that can support WP APIs and features. A potentially much better end product for everyone.

Is this tactic compelling enough to attract developers to a small platform? Would you try it?

It is still MS-Windows so NO.

1 Like

Interestingly, back in the mid 90’s there were two big desktop OSs competing for PC buyers: Microsoft Windows and IBM OS/2. Windows had a huge lead when it came to installed users so the OS/2 development team tried a gutsy tactic: They enabled you to run Windows apps in OS/2.

Most people have not used OS/2, and I suspect many here haven’t even heard of it. This strategy failed for IBM, and it makes sense. You see, developers could pretty much ignore OS/2 and simply focus on Windows. Their apps would work on both platforms.

IBM learned the hard way that you can’t win mindshare by making it easy for developers to ignore you. As a matter of fact, the opposite is true. The best platforms are the ones that attracted developers - the platforms developers couldn’t ignore (either out of fear of being irrelevant or because the platform was so alluring that they wanted to use it).

I don’t think this strategy will be a winner for Microsoft.

@newz2000

Is this just because of History or are there more technical reasons for your resounding no?

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