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WINDOWS HAS AN app problem. Microsoft knows it and it may have the answer to making itself more relevant again.
At its annual developer conference Build 2015, the company announced that developers would be able to bring Android and iOS apps directly to Windows 10.
The idea is that Microsoft will allow developers to take apps that were designed for other phone platforms and port them to Windows 10 devices.
And the company has set itself some major aims as it wants Windows 10 to be running on one billion devices in two to three years after its release.
Part of that will be helped by the fact that upgrading to Windows 10 will be free for the first year, something Microsoft will hope convinces developers to bring their apps over to Windows.
And it needs that to convince not just normal developers, but the big names apps that will bring people over to the platform.
While the number of apps on Windows platforms has grown, both Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 lack a large number of popular apps like Snapchat, Sky Now and Hailo. And even when an app is released, there’s little impetus for developers to update them after they’re released.
This approach from Microsoft suggests it’s trying to address both issues, but much will hinge on how many steps it takes to port an app and what developers need to do to make it a reality.
Another major feature announced was one called Continuum which uses the functionality of a Windows 10 smartphone to turn it into a PC by connecting it to a monitor and using your keyboard and mouse to interact with it.
By using universal apps, which adjusts a Windows 10 app to fit a PC, tablet or smartphone screen, the idea is you have a PC on the go without carrying a laptop around.
The real star of the show was HoloLens, Microsoft’s headset which allows you to view hologram-like images through a lens.
Some of the demos showed included a home situation where users could pin screens on their walls showing Skype, weather reports and movie trailers.
Other demos included education where students could use it to study anatomy, engineering, art and other subjects.
Other developments included its successor to Internet Explorer, Project Spartan, now having an official name: Microsoft Edge while Microsoft Office has been expanded to become a platform, running add-ons apps like LinkedIn, and Uber when in use.
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If they can iron out the kinks in Continuum and a few other rough edges, Windows 10 will likely dominate within a few years, on all device types. It really is very good, especially when used in conjunction with the online services Microsoft offer. They finally cracked it.
I think it’s gonna eat Android and destroy Samsung.
It will give box makers an opportunity to ship safe and secure and updatable devices, but Surface and Windows phones are going to take some time to become acceptable in the public consciousness. They’re expensive and offer nothing new and the lack of apps will hurt them.
- Sent from my iPad.
Any chance of the journal doing a windows phone app now?? No excuse not too now.
All they have to now is start LISTENING to the customers
Well they are seeking far more feedback on the beta for this than they did for Windows 8. It’s improving with every update. They just need to give us Cortana in Ireland now.
Just change your regional and language settings to US and cortana should be available. Works in windows phone anyway.
Any chance of the journal doing a windows phone app now. No excuse not too.
They have every excuse not to, the Android one will be running on it shortly.
Bring back XP
I don’t think that MS is irrelevant. It has just lost the casual crowd to Apple. Whther that is a good thing or bad thing is up for discussion.
You’d think they’d get it right by now.
I still wouldn’t mind being the richest man in the world by getting it wrong for the last 30 years.
Windows 8…… now there is a bitch of an OS!
Windows 8.1 became windows 9
When was Windows not relevant?
I recently just got rid of my windows phone, phone was brilliant but the windows store is utter garbage!
Show me a PC that isn’t vulnerable to infection by a single dodgy website or USB stick, and I will congratulate you on choosing Ubuntu and/or Linux. Windows tries to be all things to all people, and ends up being the skankiest on the block.
The best thing Microsoft could possibly do is STOP WRITING SOFTWARE!! Theirs is crap.
have your say