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There is no Pokémon Go for Windows Phone. I think that is the definitive sign that it has definitely lost the war. Before that, there was some hope, but if you

There is no Pokémon Go for Windows Phone. I think that is the definitive sign that it has definitely lost the war. Before that, there was some hope, but if you lack the most downloaded app of all time and the currently most engaged app by a large margin, it's all lost IMO.

placebo 10y ago
You seriously think history books will show how Google and Apple won eternal market domination because of Pokémon Go? Even if it wasn't just another passing craze (and I have every reason to believe it is), one thing you can learn from history is that you can never tell what will change it's course. EDIT: I stand corrected due to having misunderstood that the claim refers specifically to the status of Windows Phone.
- timClicks 10y ago
  They didn't win because of Pokémon Go, but the lack of Pokémon Go on Windows Phone will certainly be cited as evidence that Windows Phone had lost its relevance by mid 2016
  - eunice 10y ago
    it never had any relevance to lose & pokemon go is just the latest in ~5 years worth of fads to have passed windows phone over
    - macintux 10y ago
      Google bought Android out of fear that Microsoft's dominance in smartphones would lock them out. Its dominance is ancient history, but it was there.
      - bitmapbrother 10y ago
        Google was far more concerned about Apple than Microsoft.
        Oletros 10y ago
        Google bought Android in 2005. There was no signs of Apple on mobile by then
        bitmapbrother 10y ago
        Eric Schmidt was on the Apple board so perhaps he had some insight into the direction of the company.
        Oletros 10y ago
        Apart that Android was bought by Brin and Page without consulting Schmidt, Schmidt was invited to the Apple board in August 2006.
danieldk 10y ago
There is no Pokémon Go for Windows Phone. I think that is the definitive sign that it has definitely lost the war. This is largely irrelevant. The ART runtime is open, the class libraries are open. So, it is not very hard to add support for Android applications to another system. In fact, that is what Microsoft did with the canceled Astoria project[1], as well as Blackberry before. Of course, you need to build workarounds for Google Play Services, but that is a solvable problem. The real reason why Windows Phone with Astoria would fail, is that the platform only provides marginal benefits for most consumers (if any). Add to that uncertainty created by exceptionally bad management (two OS rebases in just a few years) and you have a dying platform. That said, I think the real danger for Android comes from within: Chinese OEMs providing Android without Google Play Services and/or Samsung being so powerful that it could fork Android. [1] Some people were running Android apps using a leaked build.
- niftich 10y ago
  Astoria was always a gamble because Google is in a rather advantageous position to change Android and Google Play Services whenever they want. Amazon, with their FireOS Android flavor, decided not to provide a shim for Google Play Services and instead asks developers to recompile for their specific APIs [1]. [1] https://developer.amazon.com/public/support/submitting-your-app/tech-docs/updating-your-android-app-for-fire-tablets https://developer.amazon.com/public/support/submitting-your-... Furthermore, running unmodified Android apps on Windows Phone would have conceded the developer share further. Sure, it would've gotten holdout apps on WP at the very least, but the experience would have been subpar, and WP owners would have been reminded daily with bad UX, and the whole thing would be a tacit endorsement that their platform is second-rate, practically running an emulator of someone else's platform. Instead, Microsoft decided to bite the bullet, scrap Astoria, roll out (the same) Windows 10 to as many desktops as they can and see if that changes the app equation. So far, it hasn't yet, but after years of screwups and scrapping platforms they finally have a strategy, and some leverage. Google knows this all too well, which is why they finally brought Android apps to Chromebooks. If Google brings Android apps onto Chrome on Windows 10 or macOS, it's over, everyone else has lost.
  - 10y ago
pjc50 10y ago
Can confirm: my wife bought a Doogee phone running Android to play Pokemon. It's quite good at the job for £60. She didn't get another SIM though, so she tethers it to the Windows phone in her handbag. Her experience has been that an app-less Windows phone actually has quite a lot of useful features built in, especially the social network integration. It's just that as soon as you need an app for something specific it's not there.

placebo 10y ago

You seriously think history books will show how Google and Apple won eternal market domination because of Pokémon Go? Even if it wasn't just another passing craze (and I have every reason to believe it is), one thing you can learn from history is that you can never tell what will change it's course. EDIT: I stand corrected due to having misunderstood that the claim refers specifically to the status of Windows Phone.

timClicks 10y ago
They didn't win because of Pokémon Go, but the lack of Pokémon Go on Windows Phone will certainly be cited as evidence that Windows Phone had lost its relevance by mid 2016
- eunice 10y ago
  it never had any relevance to lose & pokemon go is just the latest in ~5 years worth of fads to have passed windows phone over
  - macintux 10y ago
    Google bought Android out of fear that Microsoft's dominance in smartphones would lock them out. Its dominance is ancient history, but it was there.
    - bitmapbrother 10y ago
      Google was far more concerned about Apple than Microsoft.
      - Oletros 10y ago
        Google bought Android in 2005. There was no signs of Apple on mobile by then
        bitmapbrother 10y ago
        Eric Schmidt was on the Apple board so perhaps he had some insight into the direction of the company.
        Oletros 10y ago
        Apart that Android was bought by Brin and Page without consulting Schmidt, Schmidt was invited to the Apple board in August 2006.

danieldk 10y ago

There is no Pokémon Go for Windows Phone. I think that is the definitive sign that it has definitely lost the war. This is largely irrelevant. The ART runtime is open, the class libraries are open. So, it is not very hard to add support for Android applications to another system. In fact, that is what Microsoft did with the canceled Astoria project[1], as well as Blackberry before. Of course, you need to build workarounds for Google Play Services, but that is a solvable problem. The real reason why Windows Phone with Astoria would fail, is that the platform only provides marginal benefits for most consumers (if any). Add to that uncertainty created by exceptionally bad management (two OS rebases in just a few years) and you have a dying platform. That said, I think the real danger for Android comes from within: Chinese OEMs providing Android without Google Play Services and/or Samsung being so powerful that it could fork Android. [1] Some people were running Android apps using a leaked build.

niftich 10y ago
Astoria was always a gamble because Google is in a rather advantageous position to change Android and Google Play Services whenever they want. Amazon, with their FireOS Android flavor, decided not to provide a shim for Google Play Services and instead asks developers to recompile for their specific APIs [1]. [1] https://developer.amazon.com/public/support/submitting-your-app/tech-docs/updating-your-android-app-for-fire-tablets https://developer.amazon.com/public/support/submitting-your-... Furthermore, running unmodified Android apps on Windows Phone would have conceded the developer share further. Sure, it would've gotten holdout apps on WP at the very least, but the experience would have been subpar, and WP owners would have been reminded daily with bad UX, and the whole thing would be a tacit endorsement that their platform is second-rate, practically running an emulator of someone else's platform. Instead, Microsoft decided to bite the bullet, scrap Astoria, roll out (the same) Windows 10 to as many desktops as they can and see if that changes the app equation. So far, it hasn't yet, but after years of screwups and scrapping platforms they finally have a strategy, and some leverage. Google knows this all too well, which is why they finally brought Android apps to Chromebooks. If Google brings Android apps onto Chrome on Windows 10 or macOS, it's over, everyone else has lost.
- 10y ago

pjc50 10y ago

Can confirm: my wife bought a Doogee phone running Android to play Pokemon. It's quite good at the job for £60. She didn't get another SIM though, so she tethers it to the Windows phone in her handbag. Her experience has been that an app-less Windows phone actually has quite a lot of useful features built in, especially the social network integration. It's just that as soon as you need an app for something specific it's not there.