Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was busy explaining to a stock holders meeting that the company's plan to improve the Windows Phone's sales was to appeal to Windows developers by allowing them to write universal applications that work on computers, phones and tablets, targeting a larger array of devices than just Microsoft's handsets.
Steve Ballmer, still a major stock holder, blurts out
"That won't work, Instead, the company needs to enable Windows Phones to run Android apps."
He was possibly right, but the outburst was about as welcome as a cactus in an outhouse.
The Application market for Windows phone is a mess. If it is free, Facebook, Skype, Twitter, it gets downloaded. If the developer charge much of anything at all, apps just don't sell. And developers just aren't spending any time developing for Windows Mobile.
It's not clear exactly what Ballmer meant by his comments, however. Was he implying that Windows Phones need to run apps that were originally designed for Android, and then ported over to Windows? In that case, he's probably aware that Project Astoria, the Windows "bridge" tool that will allow developers to port Android apps to Windows, has been reportedly put on hold.
Ballmer's cryptic comment could also imply that he thinks an emulation layer might be the best bet.
But there is a third option: As strange as it sounds, a Windows-branded Android phone might not be so far-fetched.
The Fine Article at PCWorld goes on to explain that Android is mostly Open Source. And Microsoft could fork Android just like Amazon did, just like Barns and Nobel did, and then simply put a Windows Skin on it and substitute their own app store for Google's app store.
Reports are that the Windows Phone is not actually horrible. But it is still unloved.
Does anyone here believe this would work? Has Microsoft waited too long?
Related Stories
Microsoft may have sidelined its effort to allow Android apps to run unmodified on Windows 10. But Windows users have been able to do this on PCs for over a year at very low cost - thanks to a cunning virtualization project.
DuOS, or AmiDuOS, is an emulator that provides excellent compatibility for Android apps on the desktop. And perhaps unsurprisingly it survived an interesting history of tussles with Google before staking its claim.
[...] If this is the shape of things to come, it poses some intriguing strategic questions for Microsoft. Microsoft risks losing the developer client base that it has been able to take for granted for two decades. Windows has a huge app gap, and is marginal in mobile and tablets. Ideally, Microsoft wants developers to write to a Universal API that is compatible across Windows PCs and ARM-based mobile devices such as tablets and phones. But the apps have already been written, in Java, for Android.
Credit: Posted by RS Wood on comp.misc
Related: Steve Balmer: Use Android to Save Windows Phone
Bill Gates has said that he thinks everyone would be using Windows Mobile right now and not Android if it weren't for his distractions and the antitrust investigation that his company got caught into.
"There's no doubt that the antitrust lawsuit was bad for Microsoft, and we would have been more focused on creating the phone operating system and so instead of using Android today you would be using Windows Mobile," Gates claimed during his speech at The New York Times' DealBook Conference.
[...] Microsoft cofounder also revealed that the company was almost launching Windows Mobile on a Motorola handset but missed out on it by a few months, giving Android an unbeatable advantage. While there were a lot of factors, Gates says it's this 3-months delay that led to Android's supremacy and the downfall of any mobile efforts by Microsoft.
"We were just three months too late on a release Motorola would have used on a phone, so yes it's a winner takes all game."
Related:
Nadella: Microsoft Isn't Killing Windows Phone and Will Go It Alone
Steve Balmer: Use Android to Save Windows Phone
Microsoft Breaks its Windows 10 Mobile Upgrade Promise
Microsoft Axes 2,850 More Windows Phone, Sales Staff
Windows Phone Dies, Aged 6
It's Been 5 Years Already, Let's Gawp at Microsoft and Nokia's Bloodbath
Microsoft is Embracing Android as the Mobile Version of Windows
(Score: 5, Insightful) by snufu on Sunday December 06 2015, @06:49AM
that does not have a lock-in end game.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by tftp on Sunday December 06 2015, @07:58AM
Then the question becomes: what will Microsoft do if there is no viable lock-in strategy to embrace? Because that's where they are now.
The Ballmer's comment is crystal clear, as I understand it. It means "surrender this battle, move on, and fight another battle somewhere else." Perhaps MS would write great Android apps and sell them to everyone, with any Android device. After all, they were meant to be a software house. Refusal to accept the reality - the fact that MS will not become a major player in the mobile hardware - hurts MS, as it is slamming its head against the wall of free Android and slick Apple again and again. Besides, those two have all the key patents on mobile between them, including the rounded corners :-)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stormwyrm on Sunday December 06 2015, @08:04AM
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Sunday December 06 2015, @08:27AM
But you are starting to see those patents being avoided. For instance Marshmallow (android 6) allows formatting microsd cards as internal storage (not fat, fat32, or exfat). Its formatted with what ever Android's native format it (usually ext4 or f2fs). See: https://source.android.com/devices/storage/config.html [android.com]
So Android is laying the ground work to dump the microsoft patents regarding storage. I don't know about the other media patents that Microsoft secretly enforces.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 07 2015, @06:27AM
is microsoft dead already? please? i'll even contribute a bag of nails for the coffin.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by davester666 on Sunday December 06 2015, @08:04AM
That's why he made the comment. He wants it restarted, but I guess Nadella isn't taking his calls anymore so he had to bring it up at the stock holders meeting.
After this one, I'm sure Nadella is really looking forward to the next one. I'll bet he specifically tasks someone to determine if Ballmer shows up, and probably has him go through extra security.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @08:05AM
MS should go full-on embrace-and-extend.
Android is really two things: (1)Android Open Source Project (AOSP) [android.com] which is the OS and a little bit of the userland. And (2) all the APIs that google bundles up into closed-source libraries.
The problem for WInPhone is that no one wants to target the WinPhone APIs because the marketshare is too damn small. But if MS ports the WinPhone APIs to AOSP then any developer that used WinPhone could also run on all android systems too - eliminating the biggest reason to avoid WinPhone. MS gets the benefit that any WinPhone app on android will also be a simple recompile away from running on WinPhone hardware too.
In order to pull it off MS would need to make WinPhone on AOSP a fully functional, non-sucky implementation of the WinPhone APIs - it must run fast, it must not be buggy, it must implement the full API, it must be an equal dev target - it must be easy to develop for WinPhone on AOSP without even needing WinPhone hardware. And it must not lag in release schedule compared to WinPhone hardware either.
Once you've got enough major apps using WinPhone API, then MS can offer incentives to run the apps on WinPhone hardware, like more free cloud storage, cheaper app-store fees, etc.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday December 06 2015, @11:05PM
. But if MS ports the WinPhone APIs to AOSP then any developer that used WinPhone could also run on all android systems too - eliminating the biggest reason to avoid WinPhone.
No, the biggest reason to avoid WinPhone is Microsoft. No API is ever going to fix that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 07 2015, @02:11PM
That's great. Rah, rah for your tribe!
But that's not a consideration for 99.9% of app developers.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @08:10AM
"Linux is a cancer" [google.com] --Steve Ballmer, June 2001
.
Editor: Note also that Ballmer contains a double L.
See the title of this page.
Additionally, Nobel was the guy who established the prize.
The bookseller is Noble.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @08:13AM
n/t
-- gewg_
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Sunday December 06 2015, @11:14AM
Well, look at how great Android support was for Blackberry. Really saved their bacon. Put them over the top. Supporting Android apps has never been the answer to any question about also-ran mobile platforms and isn't now. The ONLY people who have done it right were Barnes and Noble, which adopted the full Google Play ecosystem on their Nook to replace their terrible app store, and it STILL did not save the Nook from oblivion.
Both MS and BB suffer from making Android too complicated. BB's Android support was ridiculously complex and too much bother for developers, with all this crazy stuff to emulate the BB devices and sign your APK. I looked at it and gave up. Then I could not get MS's emulator to work (trashed my machine totally - took over the ethernet card) let alone whatever Android support they were trying to have. This stuff needs to be easier for Android developers. Submit APK, and you're done. No porting, no jumping through hoops, etc. Make it easy on Android developers to support your platform. The burden is on you because it's your also-ran platform that is in white-cliffs-of-Dover fail mode. Developers have enough to do to support viable platforms.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2) by BK on Sunday December 06 2015, @06:10PM
But MS isn't Blackberry... BB can be replaced by an app.
At least for now, MS has a huge installed base in the enterprise. If MS can find a way to make their app ecosystem useful and usable, they should have a market.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 2) by Kilo110 on Sunday December 06 2015, @06:11PM
I used a blackberry passport and classic for a little while. I liked the OS a lot but there was a significant app gap compared to other platforms. The Android compatibility layer reminded me a lot of WINE. Most apps worked perfectly or nearly perfectly. However a not insignificant number didn't work at all or had its functionality limited. I was impressed with what they made, but it just wasn't enough.
The biggest issue was due to Android licensing issues that will plague any vendor trying to do this. Blackberry was unable to add Google Play Services, which a large portion of apps rely upon. The community figured out a way to install a modified version of Google Play Store and Google Play Services. However apps needed to manually have their APKs patched to accepted the modified Google Play Services. Also not all apps were able to be patched and even the ones that took the patch didn't run 100% properly.
I miss my time on BlackBerry 10, it had a lot of potential. I went back to Android unfortunately as I need a smartphone to do more than simply make calls, text, and email.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday December 06 2015, @12:13PM
Hahahahahahaha... gasp... hahahahahaha!
Bet he's fun at parties!
Seriously, if MS started to use Android, they'd have Ballmer wanting them to sue themselves for patent abuse...
I dunno... i wish MS would just die already. I mean, amiright?
Hahahahahaha--snort--hahahahaha!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @03:49PM
I put up with Windows on my pc all day. Why in 7 hells would I want it on my phone?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 08 2015, @06:50PM
Because in 7 out of 9 hells, that's all that is available.
In the other two, there are no phones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @04:39PM
Taking pot shots from the sidelines, probably willing to step back in to help the cause. But does anybody care, besides journalists looking for a headline?
No.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Sunday December 06 2015, @09:06PM
They still don't get it. It isn't just about apps or their price. Microsoft has had phone platforms before with an app marketplace. They completely abandoned it and jettisoned all the users. So those who did buy apps could no longer download them. Users could no longer download anything at all because the marketplace went 404. That has never happened with iphone and android.
If Microsoft really wants this to succeed then they should stop fucking with it in attempts to make it magically take more market share. Just keep upgrading the OS, devices, and apps. You know, do the hard work. If they don't axe the platform or screw it up then more people will get exposure and maybe try it out.
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