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Microsoft Rumored To Integrate Android Apps

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the admitting-defeat dept.

phmadore writes "Windows Phone has been struggling for market share, largely due to a serious lack of developers willing to invest their time in what one might consider a niche market. Statistically speaking, Android has more than 1.1M apps to Windows Phone's 200,000+. Well, according to unnamed sources informing the Verge, Microsoft may soon integrate/allow Android applications into both Windows and Windows Phone." This follows the recent debate over whether Microsoft should try to fork Android. Peter Bright made the point that doing so would be extremely difficult, and probably not worth Microsoft's time. Ben Thompson has an insightful post about how Microsoft's real decision is whether to focus on devices or services.

35 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Security by mrbill1234 · · Score: 3, Informative

    If they can run Android apps with the same OS level security as iOS, and the same level of app vetting as the Apple App Store - they may be onto something.

    1. Re:Security by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      FYI, BlackBerry already does this, including the app vetting, if the devs submit their 'droid app to BB-World.

      Going one better, the latest BB release allows install of 1Mobile and Amazon Appstores via .apk and gives access to GooglePlay via an add-on called Snap.

    2. Re:Security by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The majority of people buy the prettiest phone in the display case when they go to sign their contract. I know several people that "accidentally" got a windows phone recently and were surprised to find that all their old favorite games and such simply don't exist as far as their concerned now.

    3. Re:Security by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Isn't the Android platform security already better than iOS? As far as I know, there have been few exploits at platform level, but more related to apps asking for excess permissions and then using them. More app vetting is probably what makes the difference between Android and Apple, although most infections seem to come from unofficial marketplaces (= pirated apps).

    4. Re:Security by ewhac · · Score: 2
      Security? On a Windows platform?

      You must be new here.

      --
      Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
    5. Re:Security by CastrTroy · · Score: 2

      With tablets, you don't get the option to buy a tablet, and then pick the OS that goes on there. You buy the whole package. If you want a tablet with a MicroSD slot, you can't run iOS. And, perhaps some people would like to run Windows apps, as well as Android Apps. Maybe it would be nice to have PowerShell, MS Office, and other Microsoft apps, as well as be able to play the Android versions of GTA or Minecraft. I picked the Surface over Android because I really liked the hardware, and the apps were sufficient. If it had the ability to run Android apps as well, I wouldn't have even had to consider getting and Android tablet.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    6. Re:Security by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe not yet, but just wait until you turn it on.

  2. Numbers aren't the story by jbmartin6 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So MS has 20+% of the apps that Android has, that doesn't sound horrible. How many of those Android apps are garbage? The numbers aren't the whole story, if the 200k are much better quality than most of the 1.1M the Windows phone would win. I am not saying that is the case, just saying that comparing the number of apps in a store isn't useful information.

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    This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
    1. Re:Numbers aren't the story by CastrTroy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As someone who owns a Surface2, I have to say the app selection is pretty good. There isn't really much that I would want to go on my Surface that I can't do on it. Sure I can't play GTA on my Surface, but there are a lot of really decent games. 200,000 apps is actually quite a decent number when you think about it. No console has ever had that many different things you could run on it, and most people think there's enough software for consoles.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    2. Re:Numbers aren't the story by CastrTroy · · Score: 2

      I see a lot of that same thing on Android apps too. The MS app store isn't the only one that has this problem. You'll also see that a lot of "website wrappers" simply don't exist as a Windows App. For instance, there is no YouTube app for Windows 8. But if you just go to to YouTube on the browser, it works perfectly fine. There's no need for and app in the first place. A lot of the missing apps that people complain about on Windows 8.1 are completely unnecessary because the websites just work, even on the WinRT version of the browser.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  3. Statistically speaking by oodaloop · · Score: 4, Funny

    Statistically speaking, Android has more than 1.1M apps to Windows Phone's 200,000+

    Thanks for clarifying how you were speaking, or I would have no idea how to compare those two numbers!

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  4. right, by roc97007 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...because, this strategy worked so very well for Blackberry.

    That said, I can't think of a reason why Microsoft should not integrate Android applications, provided the results gives some reasonable user experience. I suspect that "supporting" Android applications where the user has to put up with significant numbers of crashes and hangs, rendering errors, screen geometry issues and so forth would actually hurt the platform further.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    1. Re:right, by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      It ultimately depends on how well it's done. Blackberry's compatibility layer sucks sufficiently that it was never seen as a competitor to Android. Microsoft certainly has the resources to pull it off, but I suspect they will run up against the same issue that BB did, and that is that if you make the compatibility too good, you end up simply damaging your own ecosystem and handing control of your hardware platform over to your biggest competitor.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:right, by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The trick with 'Android compatibility' is that it's really two different problems. One is merely engineering ('merely' in the 'may actually be quite difficult; but there are engineers that are quite smart, trying giving them money' sense) and one is strategic:

      'Android' as in the ASOP is a mixture of GPL and Apache. Exactly how many man-hours it takes to get ASOP running on your platform, or Dalvik and friends running on your non-Linux kernel is an open question, and may end up being quite a few if you want it to work well; but there is nobody to stop you, and you just need suitably skilled software people.

      Trouble is, much of the good stuff in 'Android' (and stuff that Google doesn't exactly discourage developers from using) isn't ASOP, it's Google Play Services, a set of proprietary applications, libraries, and Google-backed web servcies that can be bestowed or denied to your device at the power and mere pleasure of Team Mountain View. They tend to ignore indie ROM-cookers and two-bit pacific RIM clonemongers who quietly pirate GPS; but if a company large enough to target, or ambitious enough to try to cut deals with major carriers in markets Google cares about, tries to distribute GPS without Google's blessing, it's world-of-hurt time.

      At a greater or lesser cost in software engineers, you could get an ASOP-compatible Android compatibility layer running on QNX, NT, OSX, whatever. However, how much that helps you is increasingly limited.

    3. Re:right, by Daniel+Hoffmann · · Score: 2

      There is also the usability issue, Windows apps are different from Android apps and this dissonance subconsciously annoys the user. Ever tried using Mac after been a Windows user for years? same thing. Think of the mouse movement you do subconsciously do when you try to resize a window, there is a big chance that what you do will not work on a Mac.

  5. Re:Just 1 Anonymous Coward by roc97007 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm wondering if slashdot should simply separate the server from the reader similar to what was done with Usenet News, and let the user community write their own interfaces?

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  6. Slippery slope by mlg98 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As a Windows Phone user I think this is a terrible idea. Didn't BlackBerry already try this? Did it help them? I don't think so. It is a slippery slope that only leads to irrelevance.

    The beauty of Windows Phone is that it is not like Android and iOS. Well written WP apps, which follow the Metro (I know they don't call it that anymore) design philosophy integrate beautifully into the environment. Slapping Android apps, which follow very different conventions would diminish the user experience.

    --
    Code to live, live to code.
    1. Re:Slippery slope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Blackberry 10 (BB10) has been able to 'side load' Android apps but not being a direct route, was troubling to some users. With the current official BB10 10.2 you can directly load Android apps. 10.2 has been rolled out by many carriers but not all just yet. My opinion to be sure, but the whole 'app gap' debacle is a freaking joke. Many of the so-called major apps BB has been missing are available in competing (and sometimes better) apps. You'd never know it thanks to all the Android and IOS fanboyism but BB10 happens to be pretty great. :)

  7. Re:Android is already there by Desler · · Score: 2

    Microsoft doesn't own Nokia's handset business yet. So, no, it's not their phone.

  8. History repeating itself by Viros · · Score: 2

    So...they're basically going to do the same thing OS/2 did with Windows applications? How well did that work out for OS/2?

    1. Re:History repeating itself by Viros · · Score: 2

      I was actually referring to the Windows application compatibility feature in OS/2 that caused a lot of developers to skip out on a native OS/2 version of their programs since the Windows ones "just worked" on OS/2 as well.

    2. Re:History repeating itself by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Informative

      Windows 3.1 and Win32S ran well in OS/2. What killed OS/2 in the end was that they had no access to the full Win32 API being used in Windows NT, and when Chicago/Windows 95 adopted the (nearly) full Win32 API suite, developers decided Microsoft, with its vast OEM network, was going to be the winner and abandoned any notion of supporting OS/2. I remember the last floundering days of OS/2 Warp 4, when IBM put out both a browser and an MS-Works-like office suite, as well as some sort of Win32 migration layer to the OS/2 32 bit API in the hopes that they could lure developers. Sadly, even by the mid-1990s, when my involvement with IBM as a VAR ended, Word and Excel had sufficient penetration that that last ditch attempt fell on its face, and OS/2, for all its advantages was relegated to a slow death.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  9. Re: Just 1 Anonymous Coward by VTBlue · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Couldn't agree more

  10. The cut matters by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    I'd rather have the 99%, because, well, no matter how you cut it, I'd be making a lot more money.

    No, it does matter how you cut it. Currently Apple is making 87% of the profits in the mobile space, Samsung 30%...

    The overage is the amount those two companies are taking money not just from consumers, but how much other companies are pouring money into a black hole.

    And from a developer side the cut still matters, as you can still make a lot more income from iOS apps than Android despite there supposedly being a lot more Android devices people could run apps on.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  11. Re:Just 1 Anonymous Coward by laie_techie · · Score: 2

    Unlike most protestors, you seem to have a brain. Thank you for a well thought out exposition of what the movement really means instead of just parroting "F Beta".

    I haven't yet been switched to the new LAF, so I can't comment on Beta's strengths and short-comings. If people, like you, would say why it's bad instead of spouting profanity, maybe Dice will listen. The current theme does look like it's from the 1990s. I'm not saying that's a bad thing - I remember using Archie and Mosaic. It was a great time for a geek to grow up. Dice wants a return on its investment, so that means that current users need to unblock ads (and actually click on a few), or Dice needs to attract a new crowd that will.

  12. Yes, it does by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    I already said in the original message that other companies in the space are losing money. That's why the profits add up to more than 100%.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Yes, it does by sexconker · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's not how it fucking works, lol. You even specified "profits" which makes even less sense. Profit is a fixed value of realized net gain. You can't have more than 100% of it, and you can't have less than 0% of it. You can't conflate Company B's LOSS with another's PROFIT to determine the MARKET's PROFIT. There's a reason we separate out PROFIT and LOSS.

      Here's an example since I'm sure you still don't get it (you'll probably REFUSE to get it since you linked to appleinsider.com ).

      Company A: $6 Profit
      Company B: $4 Profit
      Company C: $0 Profit/Loss
      Company D: $5 Loss

      Market X had a PROFIT of $10 AND a LOSS of $5 ACROSS Companies A, B, C, and D.
      You never talk about a MARKET's Profit or Loss as a whole, you talk about its REVENUE, or its Profits ACROSS those Companies which were Profitable, and losses across those which bleeding.

      Company A got 60% of the Profit, Company B got 40%.
      Company D made up 100% of the Loss.
      Company C broke even.

      You absolutely do not fucking count it as $5 Profit across the Market with Company A getting 120% of the Profit and Company B getting 80% (and Company C getting -100%).
      Profit is not a fucking vector. It is always positive. You cannot conflate Profit and Loss and flip the fucking sign.

      So why do Apple shits like to report it this way? Because they're fucking morons who read a table and don't understand what the numbers mean, or they simply want to see Apple have a larger number so they purposefully concoct bullshit like this.

      With 87% and 30%, assuming no other profitable players, you're really dealing with 74.36% and 25.64%.

      Furthermore, your link says 56% and 53%, not 87% and 30%. With 56% and 53%, you're really dealing with 51.38% and 48.62%.

  13. Re: Just 1 Anonymous Coward by macinnisrr · · Score: 2

    Shouldn't you be boycotting? I understand the anti-beta posts from last week, and the boycott, and altslashdot.org. I will certainly even visit it and sign up, but I at least hoped that this week I could enjoy Slashdot without the first post being another anti-beta rant. Well written, but off topic, and at this point ridiculous, as you all threatened to leave us as alone for a week. At this rate, you'll have a flourishing community on you new site, and STILL be trolling here long after it's no longer beta. Last week it wasn't irritating, it was even a bit inspiring. Now it's just stupid.

  14. Won't support native code by Thomasje · · Score: 2

    I'll bet you anything this won't support native code, just like BlackBerry's Android compatibility box. Supporting native code would require running an actual Android kernel, because native code can perform system calls and all that -- it's outside of the Java sandbox.

  15. It worked well for OS/2 by jader3rd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When OS/2 was struggling for market share, IBM decided that they could bring along more customers by allowing Windows programs to run on OS/2. So they put a whole lot of effort into it and the result was a disaster. The few programs that used to have an OS/2 version no longer did. The program maker didn't see a reason to make an OS/2 version if their Windows version ran on OS/2 too. And customers saw that Windows programs ran better on Windows than on OS/2, so why buy an OS/2 machine if all of the programs you want to run, run better on this cheaper Windows machine?

  16. Re:Just 1 Anonymous Coward by Grishnakh · · Score: 2, Interesting

    >The current theme does look like it's from the 1990s.

    That's a good thing. Go look at Reddit; it looks even more like an interface from the 1990s, and it's excellent. No tons of bullshit whitespace, just lots of text packed in for those of us who are able to read and don't need a lot of stupid pictures and videos.

    >so that means that current users need to unblock ads (and actually click on a few), or Dice needs to attract a new crowd that will.

    Like Digg did? Oh wait, Digg died.

    Meanwhile, Reddit doesn't bitch about users blocking ads, and they're doing excellent financially, with not one but two offices (one in SanFran, one in NYC).

  17. Just give up by Sable+Drakon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Give it up, MS. You've lost mobile all over again. This is just another repeat of WinMo 6/6.5 and not many people are going to put up with it. So instead of bowing out when you knew you were beaten, you've proceeded to beat the dead horse and wasting more money on failed products. The fact that both you and Blackberry have been trying to get Android apps to run on your platforms is telling of a serious lack of confidense on your software. Just give up.

    --
    The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
  18. Re:Just 1 Anonymous Coward by geekoid · · Score: 2

    I did look at reddit, and they are running in the red, pretty deeply to.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  19. Reddit is actually losing money... by binku19 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Source: http://www.businessinsider.com...

  20. Re:Just 1 Anonymous Coward by cygnwolf · · Score: 2

    obviously you should stop browsing as AC, I don't see those sliders and I browse at -1 all the time. I don't have to do anything special to do this either. There's an option in your conversations settings called "Choose your discussion system" that allows you to choose the classic style view, and it's been there ever since the sliders were introduced, took me all of 1 minute to find it when the sliders came out.

    --
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