Microsoft Rumored To Integrate Android Apps

phmadore writes "Windows Phone has been struggling for market share, largely due to a serious lack of developers willing to invest their time in what one might consider a niche market. Statistically speaking, Android has more than 1.1M apps to Windows Phone's 200,000+. Well, according to unnamed sources informing the Verge, Microsoft may soon integrate/allow Android applications into both Windows and Windows Phone." This follows the recent debate over whether Microsoft should try to fork Android. Peter Bright made the point that doing so would be extremely difficult, and probably not worth Microsoft's time. Ben Thompson has an insightful post about how Microsoft's real decision is whether to focus on devices or services.

Re:Just 1 Anonymous Coward

[roc97007]

I'm wondering if slashdot should simply separate the server from the reader similar to what was done with Usenet News, and let the user community write their own interfaces?

Slippery slope

[mlg98]

As a Windows Phone user I think this is a terrible idea. Didn't BlackBerry already try this? Did it help them? I don't think so. It is a slippery slope that only leads to irrelevance.

The beauty of Windows Phone is that it is not like Android and iOS. Well written WP apps, which follow the Metro (I know they don't call it that anymore) design philosophy integrate beautifully into the environment. Slapping Android apps, which follow very different conventions would diminish the user experience.

Re: Just 1 Anonymous Coward

[VTBlue]

Couldn't agree more

Re:Security

[Charliemopps]

The majority of people buy the prettiest phone in the display case when they go to sign their contract. I know several people that "accidentally" got a windows phone recently and were surprised to find that all their old favorite games and such simply don't exist as far as their concerned now.

Re:Security

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't the Android platform security already better than iOS? As far as I know, there have been few exploits at platform level, but more related to apps asking for excess permissions and then using them. More app vetting is probably what makes the difference between Android and Apple, although most infections seem to come from unofficial marketplaces (= pirated apps).

Re:Numbers aren't the story

[CastrTroy]

As someone who owns a Surface2, I have to say the app selection is pretty good. There isn't really much that I would want to go on my Surface that I can't do on it. Sure I can't play GTA on my Surface, but there are a lot of really decent games. 200,000 apps is actually quite a decent number when you think about it. No console has ever had that many different things you could run on it, and most people think there's enough software for consoles.

Re:Just 1 Anonymous Coward

[Grishnakh]

>The current theme does look like it's from the 1990s.

That's a good thing. Go look at Reddit; it looks even more like an interface from the 1990s, and it's excellent. No tons of bullshit whitespace, just lots of text packed in for those of us who are able to read and don't need a lot of stupid pictures and videos.

>so that means that current users need to unblock ads (and actually click on a few), or Dice needs to attract a new crowd that will.

Like Digg did? Oh wait, Digg died.

Meanwhile, Reddit doesn't bitch about users blocking ads, and they're doing excellent financially, with not one but two offices (one in SanFran, one in NYC).

Just give up

[Sable Drakon]

Give it up, MS. You've lost mobile all over again. This is just another repeat of WinMo 6/6.5 and not many people are going to put up with it. So instead of bowing out when you knew you were beaten, you've proceeded to beat the dead horse and wasting more money on failed products. The fact that both you and Blackberry have been trying to get Android apps to run on your platforms is telling of a serious lack of confidense on your software. Just give up.

Reddit is actually losing money...

[binku19]

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com... [businessinsider.com]