Ballmer Criticizes Microsoft's Recent Decision to Shelve Making Android Apps Work on Windows Phone

[dgstorm]

Although very few folks would probably consider listening to what Steve Ballmer has to say about Microsoft decisions, (here at HQ), we have to admit we agree with him on his latest public statements. He recently made a comment that he disagrees with Microsoft's new stance on possibly shelving their plans to make Android Apps work on Windows Phone. Ballmer commented on statements made by new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at a recent meeting. Here's a quote with some of the details,

At the meeting, Nadella was asked about the lack of high-profile apps, such as one from Starbucks, and other support for Windows 10 on mobile devices. Nadella's response was that Microsoft is encouraging developers to make universal apps that will run on PC, mobile, and Xbox One.

"That won't work," Ballmer told Bloomberg, adding that Windows phones need to "run Android apps." While the ability for Windows 10 to emulate Android apps may never see the light of day, Microsoft is still trying to make it easy for iOS developers to bring their apps to the platform.

Beyond Ballmer's logic on this issue, there's also the perspective that if you make Windows Phone more open and compatible with Android (and iOS), then you make it easier for customers to potentially switch to a Windows Phone. We understand that Microsoft would like to build their own fully fleshed out ecosystem, but the competition has so much of a head start it seems like their earlier idea of cross-platform compatibility was a great plan. What do you think? Is Steve Ballmer right on this one?

Source: SlashGear

 

[macmee]

Maybe this would help Windows phone. I can already run chrome / emacs / g++ / office / photoshop on the surface and that's enough for me.

Android apps would probably have to run on a JVM also and that would just heat up and burn battery.

 

[jnjroach]

Android Apps are being an abandoned because of exactly that, they are unlicensed JAVA compiled applications that require a virtualization layer. iOS Apps are direct ports (Objective C and Swift can be recompiled using the Bridge and Standard Windows Development Tools). iOS Apps typically have the higher quality and come to market prior to Android.