Microsoft Burned the Bridge for Porting Android Apps
To make it easier for mobile app developers in porting their programs over to Windows 10, Microsoft built a series of bridges. They're toolkits used to do the dirty work for various developers. The company had one porting Android apps known as Project Astoria. But the company burned that bridge.
But Microsoft is building a bridge for porting iOS apps to Windows 10 and another for Internet apps. This year, the company is also building a bridge for Win32. These plans aren't affected by the recent announcement of Microsoft. However, the iOS bridge may seem likely to go down, too.
According to Microsoft:
We received a lot of feedback that having two Bridge technologies to bring code from mobile operating systems to Windows was unnecessary, and the choice between them could be confusing. We have carefully considered this feedback and decided that we would focus our efforts on the Windows Bridge for iOS and make it the single Bridge option for bringing mobile code to all Windows 10 devices, including Xbox and PCs.
It added that:
For those developers who spent time investigating the Android Bridge, we strongly encourage you to take a look at the iOS Bridge and Xamarin as great solutions.
This news came after the company made a deal with Xamarin, a cross-platform mobile development software. This software vendor is a separate strategy to Microsoft's bridge. However, the goal is almost the same and that is to make mobile apps from other platforms be available to Windows 10.
If you're a developer, instead of waiting for Astoria, you should now look into its open source iOS migration tool. The main goal behind bridges is to bring current code to Windows. By investing on the iOS Bridge, the company can make its goal straightforward.
Microsoft has lost its battle in the mobile OS market. Five years ago, Windows Phone has started as a promising alternative to a more expensive iOS or Android. But it has failed to position itself as the true mobile ecosystem. In the recent quarter, the company has only sold 4.5 million devices compared to its 10.5 million sales last year. This only indicates a massive drop. Compared with iOS and Android phones, Microsoft and Nokia have only sold 110 million smartphones.
With Lumia sales declining and Microsoft's not planning to produce more handsets, it's pretty clear now that the end of Windows Phone is near. Although there are rumours suggesting that the company is developing a Surface Phone. But, in order for it to be successful, it has to make it to the market first. With the lack of hardware, sales and market share, it may be time for Windows to call its Windows Phone as dead.
While it's not ready yet to say that its smartphones are dead, Microsoft ensures that its own apps will be available on every platform. It's trying to assist third-party developers in making their apps be available on Microsoft, too. For Microsoft, it needs its Windows products to work no matter what kind of device their users are using.
Image Source: Microsoft
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Source: Microsoft Burned the Bridge for Porting Android Apps
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