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Windows 10 Can Run Reworked Android and iOS Apps

Posted by samzenpus on from the welcome-to-the-party dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this interesting news from Microsoft. After months of rumors, Microsoft is revealing its plans to get mobile apps on Windows 10 today. While the company has been investigating emulating Android apps, it has settled on a different solution, or set of solutions, that will allow developers to bring their existing code to Windows 10. iOS and Android developers will be able to port their apps and games directly to Windows universal apps, and Microsoft is enabling this with two new software development kits. On the Android side, Microsoft is enabling developers to use Java and C++ code on Windows 10, and for iOS developers they'll be able to take advantage of their existing Objective C code. 'We want to enable developers to leverage their current code and current skills to start building those Windows applications in the Store, and to be able to extend those applications,' explained Microsoft's Terry Myerson during an interview with The Verge this morning.

6 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Re:*Badly by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think the main question is how much reworking is needed to make the apps run well. Reworking could mean anything from ensuring there is no requirement for things that possibly couldn't exist on a standard windows machine, such as games that require tilt controls. It could also mean rewriting 90% of the code. There's no reason why they shouldn't be able to get this to work. If they can get Android and iOS apps to run on windows tablets, phones, and desktops, then that will be one more reason for users to switch back to Windows. Personally, I have a Windows tablet and I love it. The only real problem is the small number of apps. If they could make iOS and Android apps run on it, then all the better.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  2. This is an old tactic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In the 80's Microsoft wrote their applications to be able to import files in formats from other companies, but not export back to the same formats. Examples were lotus 1-2-3 and Wordperfect. This tactic was a trick to encourage and then lock in developers to work only on the Windows platform using Microsoft's software. It also explains their reluctance to make easily available export tools to Open Office formats unless forced by a government such at the UK.

    Examples of this trick:

    1. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-excel/convert-lotus-123-wk4-to-excel-2010/f9508a7f-9cd0-418e-aac8-0e01f0e26da1
    2. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2671933
    3. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4540
    4. Results of google searching for openoffice converter at microsoft.com: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1CAHPZY_enUS566US566&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=microsoft+openoffice++converter+site:microsoft.com
    5. And lastly check what page hits a google search of microsoft.com returns: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1CAHPZY_enUS566US566&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=microsoft+converter+site:microsoft.com
  3. Hypocrites by damicatz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Microsoft was an amicus supporting Oracle in their efforts to copyright APIs.

    Now they want to turn around and do the exact same thing, only for Android and iOS. And to top that all off, their entire success is based on the fact that they were able to rip off the CP/M APIs and clone them for IBM and do so for much cheaper than what DR wanted.

  4. Re:assuming they reverse-engineer the libraries by farble1670 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why would anyone need to reverse engineer open source libraries from Android?

    because they are also providing MSFT implementations of the Google APIs which of course are not open source. should be easy enough. e.g., provide a maps implementation that works exactly like Google maps.

  5. Re:Why? by Dog-Cow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That joke may have been funny about 5 years ago. Might.

    My parents, siblings and their spouses use Windows Phones. They aren't horrible, though they do suffer from a lack of apps. Which is probably why MS is going to the trouble of making porting really easy.

  6. Re:assuming they reverse-engineer the libraries by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nokia already did that for the Nokia-X. Maybe that's why Microsoft bought Nokia.