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Microsoft's plan to port Android apps to Windows proves too complex

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Re: Microsoft's plan to port Android apps to Windows proves too complex

#51

Post by hackuser »

If I owned Microsoft stock I would question this investment of resources. How much is this costing the organization, and what is the likely return? For return on investment they not only have to pull off a techical feat that nobody else has achieved, but also the availability of 'Windowized' Android apps will have to spur a massive increase in Windows Mobile sales, another unlikely event.

Maybe this project doesn't cost much or maybe Microsoft sees it as eseential for their business' future and worth the risk.

Re: Microsoft's plan to port Android apps to Windows proves too complex

#52

Post by proksoup »

hackuser wrote: post #51

If I owned Microsoft stock I would question this investment of resources. How much is this costing the organization, and what is the likely return? For return on investment they not only have to pull off a techical feat that nobody else has achieved, but also the availability of 'Windowized' Android apps will have to spur a massive increase in Windows Mobile sales, another unlikely event. Maybe this project doesn't c…

The lack of apps for windows mobile is a killer feature it's missing.

I think they have tried other avenues, like incentivizing developers ... but they are so far behind, what other options could they pursue to solve that problem?

Re: Microsoft's plan to port Android apps to Windows proves too complex

#53

Post by hackuser »

proksoup wrote: post #52
hackuser wrote: post #51

If I owned Microsoft stock I would question this investment of resources. How much is this costing the organization, and what is the likely return? For return on investment they not only have to pull off a techical feat that nobody else has achieved, but also the availability of 'Windowized' Android apps will have to spur a massive increase in Windows Mobile sales, another unlikely event. Maybe this project doesn't c…

The lack of apps for windows mobile is a killer feature it's missing. I think they have tried other avenues, like incentivizing developers ... but they are so far behind, what other options could they pursue to solve that problem?

If you have a product that is highly unlikely to succeed, the solution isn't to invest money in highly unlikely remedies. If that's your best option (maybe Microsoft has better ones; I don't know) kill the product.

Also, they could use a VM and give up providing a 'Windowized' interface to the apps.

Re: Microsoft's plan to port Android apps to Windows proves too complex

#54

Post by ck2 »

Grazester wrote: post #16
ck2 wrote: post #14

If they pull this off though, it guarantees Windows Mobile survival.

No! You could run Android apps in some fashion on Blackberry devices. Is their survival guaranteed? Not even close. This made no difference

Yes but this would add a million apps to Windows Mobile which is really suffering in that department.

Was it seamless on Blackberry? I doubt it.

Windows Mobile runs on the same hardware as android, it doesn't even need a VM layer.

Re: Microsoft's plan to port Android apps to Windows proves too complex

#55

Post by Grazester »

rasz_pl wrote: post #40
bingobob wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Play Services are also updated every few month, Microsoft would always behind the eightball when trying to remap services. but what is truly impressive from Microsoft is there Xbox 360 Emulation on the Xbox One go check it out you will be surprised

for truly impressive look up Bleemcast!, Playstation emulator running on Dreamcast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-tQX-XZhX0

This was impressive indeed. It was written entirely in assembly(not using the DC katana library or directX) to get the most out of the Dreamcast. Also it was years and years before they were able to crack it to be able to copy the discs and by which time both the Dreamcast and Bleem were long dead. The author has a post on a gaming forums about a few years back. Pretty cool stuff given the tiny size of the team that worked on this and the financial resources available to them. Sony eventually sued them into the ground.

Re: Microsoft's plan to port Android apps to Windows proves too complex

#56

Post by dharma1 »

s73v3r wrote: post #46
dharma1 wrote: post #6

Would be great to be able to run Android apps on other platforms, even if they don't replicate the native host UX or have access to all the platform APIs. The only solutions I've seen are -Myriad Alien Dalvik (which isn't free) -Google's ARC Welder (which is very fast but only works inside Chrome/Chromium, doesn't work with all apps, only runs one app at a time and quite clunky to use) And emulators like Bluestacks o…

As a developer, I wouldn't think this would be good. Mainly because I wouldn't have had tested the app on alternative platforms, and people would give bad reviews when it doesn't work, despite me never making the claim that it's compatible.

You can't download the apk from Google play directly to your Linux machine. You'd have to first install it on your android device and then manually copy to your Linux device - at that point I don't think many users would expect it to work 100% and probably wouldn't review it as such

Re: Microsoft's plan to port Android apps to Windows proves too complex

#57

Post by Grazester »

ck2 wrote: post #54
Grazester wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No! You could run Android apps in some fashion on Blackberry devices. Is their survival guaranteed? Not even close. This made no difference

Yes but this would add a million apps to Windows Mobile which is really suffering in that department. Was it seamless on Blackberry? I doubt it. Windows Mobile runs on the same hardware as android, it doesn't even need a VM layer.

Buddy all three platforms mentioned here run on the same arm based Qualcomm SOC. If by vm layer you are implying that there needs to be any translation done for differing underlying processor architecture then you are mistaken.

Re: Microsoft's plan to port Android apps to Windows proves too complex

#58

Post by s73v3r »

dharma1 wrote: post #56
s73v3r wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer, I wouldn't think this would be good. Mainly because I wouldn't have had tested the app on alternative platforms, and people would give bad reviews when it doesn't work, despite me never making the claim that it's compatible.

You can't download the apk from Google play directly to your Linux machine. You'd have to first install it on your android device and then manually copy to your Linux device - at that point I don't think many users would expect it to work 100% and probably wouldn't review it as such

I wouldn't be willing to trust that. Users can be pretty damn stupid. How many times did we see people who were running beta versions of Android and iOS, and give bad reviews to apps that weren't fully supporting it from day one?

Re: Microsoft's plan to port Android apps to Windows proves too complex

#59

Post by frik »

pavlov wrote: post #48
chadzawistowski wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That did happen back in the 90s, yes. What's the tactical strategy behind Astoria being vaporware?

It's not vaporware. It's been available in a semi-closed beta for months to 3rd parties and works pretty well.

Like WinFS. Vaporware means a lot of PR for a product that was never shipped in the end.

Microsoft's strategy since it's early days is based on vaporware, even Windows 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware

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