Windows 10 Mobile — For years, Microsoft has been ridiculed for its efforts to gain traction in a mobile market that is completely dominated by Apple and Google. Though, the Windows Phone OS was arguably the most stable and most secure mobile OS out there, it never really captured the attention of consumers. The company currently holds less than 3% of the market in the US.
Microsoft's latest offerings, the Lumia 950 and the Lumia 950XL equipped with Windows 10 Mobile, are not expected to drastically change the company's current position. However, when given a serious look, they may in fact be the most advanced smartphones out there as of right now.
Though the 950 XL has not been released yet, it has nonetheless been compared to many high-end smartphones on the market like the Apple iPhone 6s Plus and Samsung's numerous high-end phones.
Truth is, nowadays, all high-end smartphones share most of their features. They all take good pictures, they all have gre at display and of course do a great job at being well — a phone. But the 950 XL running Windows 10 Mobile has a unique ability that is totally lacking on other platforms and perhaps will take years to come if they are ever to come on these platforms.
The feature we are referring to is Continuum. The latter allows the phone to work as a a full-blown computer when connected to a larger and compatible display through a dock. When connected, the compatible apps — known as Universal Apps — will scale up and act as full desktop applications. Microsoft demoed the feature using Word and PowerPoint at its event earlier this month and it seems to work quite fine.
The Universal Apps are able to adapt to the screen size of different gadgets thanks to a new set of APIs that allow Windows developers to create applications that can change form and behavior depending on the screen size of the device they are being run on. Thus, for a developer, instead of having a standalone ve rsion of his or her app for each platforms, it is a great opportunity to be able to code and debug once and have the app run on all versions of Windows.
As explained by Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella, Continuum will be of great value for professionals who want to carry fewer but more efficient devices with them during their travel around the world. The CEO also noted that Continuum will also be very useful for people living in third-world countries who are not able to afford multiple devices.
No other platforms can currently claim to do such things. For Apple, OS X and iOS are two completely separated platforms and for Google, Chrome OS and Android could not be any further apart: the former is a web browser/OS able to run web-based applications and the latter is a traditional OS capable of running native applications.
Microsoft now stands alone in its efforts to unify the experience for users and to allow them to get more out of their expensive devices. The stra tegy may not work for Microsoft for several reasons — lack of support from developers and bias from the tech media — but we are sure that it is nonetheless the future of computing, making Windows Phones, which have that capability the most advanced phones out there.
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Source: Windows 10 Mobile: Microsoft's Lumia 950 XL With Windows 10 Mobile May Be the Most Advanced Phone of the Year 2015
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