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Microsoft Is Embracing Android As the Mobile Version of Windows (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the obvious-choice dept.

Microsoft unveiled a bunch of new hardware during a press event last night, but one of the most interesting announcements the company made was their new "Your Phone" app for Windows 10. Basically, the feature will let Android users mirror any app on their device to a Windows 10 desktop. The Verge's Tom Warren writes about how Microsoft is embracing Android as the mobile version of Windows: We've seen a variety of ways of bringing Android apps to Windows in recent years, including Bluestacks and even Dell's Mobile Connect software. This app mirroring is certainly easier to do with Android, as it's less restricted than iOS. Still, Microsoft's welcoming embrace of Android in Windows 10 with this app mirroring is just the latest in a number of steps the company has taken recently to really help align Android as the mobile equivalent of Windows.

Microsoft Launcher is designed to replace the default Google experience on Android phones, and bring Microsoft's own services and Office connectivity to the home screen. It's a popular launcher that Microsoft keeps updating, and it's even getting support for the Windows 10 Timeline feature that lets you resume apps and sites across devices. All of this just reminds me of Windows Phone. It's only been three years since Microsoft launched its Lumia 950 Windows 10 Mobile device at a packed holiday hardware event. Windows Phone has vanished in the last couple of years, and Microsoft finally admitted Windows Phone was dead nearly a year ago. The software maker has now embraced the reality that people don't need Windows on a phone. Instead, it's embracing Android as the mobile version of Windows.

12 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Embracing... by sconeu · · Score: 4, Informative

    You know what the other two "E"s are...

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    1. Re:Embracing... by spongman · · Score: 2

      electrical engineering?

    2. Re: Embracing... by stephanruby · · Score: 4, Informative

      Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      That being said, I doubt they'll be able to do that anymore. They don't have the same dominance they used to have. At this point, Microsoft is just trying to survive, it's no longer capable of dominating anymore.

    3. Re: Embracing... by mjwx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      That being said, I doubt they'll be able to do that anymore. They don't have the same dominance they used to have. At this point, Microsoft is just trying to survive, it's no longer capable of dominating anymore.

      This, they tried to do the three E's thing with Windows Phone, leveraging their waning dominance on the server/desktop market to a phone market they ignored whilst Google ate their lunch. The process was more akin to the DABDA stages of grief.

      Denial = Android will never take off.
      Anger = Hurrr, we'll sue Google for everything. And release our own half arsed operating system with tiles and solitaire.
      Bargaining = Maybe if we buy Nokia people will buy it.
      Depression = Why won't people buying Windows Phones.
      Acceptance = Lets start making apps for Android and try to forget this whole Windows Phone palaver.

      Microsoft's power has waned from the days of the 90's when they could take down competition at a whim. Microsoft are now starting to lose their grip on the enterprise market.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    4. Re:Embracing... by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      If Microsoft provide a layer that implements those important Google Play Services APIs then at least there will be an alternative to Google Android. It's still a bit baffling that the FOSS community hasn't stepped up to this, AOSP was a great base for an open and free mobile operating system but much like desktop Linux it seems the FOSS solution is destined to be a late-to-the-game, also-ran mess of NIH syndrome solutions that maybe a tiny percentage of devotees will use.

      The problem is that "framework" stuff is generally "boring" and "not my itch" type development. FOSS is great for "scratch my itch" projects, but the boring infrastructure projects generally have to be subsidized by someone else

      It's one of those unfortunate realities - unless the FOSS development is sponsored by a company, generally only the "exciting" stuff gets done

      Ironically, that might end up to be Microsoft.

    5. Re:Embracing... by drevange · · Score: 2

      Every time I see or hear somebody call Android open source I have to puke and wonder if they know what Open Source actually means or are just blinded by Google. Google 100% controls Android. 100%. You can maybe call it "Open Sauce" - but definitely not Open Source. You can add your own flavor to it, the sauce if you will, but you can't add or control jack shit.

  2. The real competition for android is not iOS by williamyf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The real competition for android is AOSP.

    Last time I saw the numbers* for Mobile OS market share:

    Android total: 81%
    - Google's Android: 55%
    - AOSP Android: 27%

    - iOS Total: 18%

    - Other: 1%
    % do not add up due to rounding errors

    So, phase 1, embrace Google's Android, while mantaining compatibility with AOSP.

    Phase 2: Extend AOSP, giving it functional equivalents to the functions Google keeps behind the Google Play Services, that have either no equivalents in AOSP, or Delerict APIs

    Phase 3: I hope they do not extinguish Google's Android, but at least lessen Alphabet's grip on the mobile market. This monoculture is as bad (or worse) for us than the Windows desktop and browser monopoly was in the 90's and 00's.

    * Numbers come from here:
    http://communities-dominate.bl...

    Sorry for not posting the full link, /. threw a filter error

    I do not agree with all that Tomi wites, and I do not like his writting style, but I give it to him, he has the best publicly available numbers, and I thank him for give them away for free.

    --
    *** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
    1. Re:The real competition for android is not iOS by jezwel · · Score: 2

      So, what's Microsoft's endgame here? A custom branded version of Android with Microsoft extensions? I'm not really seeing a lot of profit in that.

      Seamless access and handover between mobile, local, and hosted apps appears to be the goal, agnostic to the underlying hardware and OS kernel.

      * Use O365 apps on your Android phone
      * Boot your virtual Win365 work desktop, running O365, hosted on Azure, mirrored to whatever display you have nearby - and picking up where you left off - on any device you can configure to boot from Azure stored VMs
      * Head into work and access a Net-PC or workstation, or dock your phone, and again pickup from where you were before.

    2. Re:The real competition for android is not iOS by BadDreamer · · Score: 4, Informative

      [quote]So, what's Microsoft's endgame here?[/quote]

      Everyone subscribing to Microsoft's software services and cloud, directly or through phone plan.

  3. Repeat by commodore64_love · · Score: 2

    Repeat article. I just read the exact-same thing last night.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  4. Wow, that's harsh. by jcr · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm certainly no fan of Android or any other half-assed knock-off of Apple's IP, but calling it the "mobile version of Windows" is much further than even I'd go in disparaging it.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  5. Unnecessary, really. by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Android already WAS the mobile version of Windows, in that it was a case where someone elseâ(TM) work was taken by a company that grew really huge with the help of something they did not create, and who paid very little or nothing for it, and then proceeded to build an EMPIRE on it, while in reality, objectively, it is an ugly kludge of cobbled-together, mismatched parts that has become, despite its many, many MANY flaws, THE big thing that people eventually either come to love, or love to hate.

    So Microsoft giving its irrelevant blessing just looks like an octogenarian announcing that he is joining a punk rock band, and learning to skateboard and wants to do body shots to convince his great great great grandkids he is cool.

    --
    Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.