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This is the same strategy Blackberry tried, more or less, and I'm skeptical that it'll work out any better for Microsoft. It's nice enough in the short term, m

This is the same strategy Blackberry tried, more or less, and I'm skeptical that it'll work out any better for Microsoft. It's nice enough in the short term, maybe -- Windows Phone users can get some subset of quickly-ported things -- but in the long-term it seems to doom Windows Phone to second-class status; why would you write a real, native Windows Phone app when you can just do a quick half-assed port of your Android/iOS version? And if Windows Phone is just a platform that has a bunch of outdated, bad versions of some Android/iOS apps, there's not a lot of reason to buy it.

cwyers 12y ago
This isn't the strategy Blackberry tried. This is about making code portable, not compiled binaries.
- magicalist 12y ago
  Can you explain how that would help? Also, it appears that it is indeed about allowing compiled binaries to run unmodified. > Specifically, Windows Mobile (and yes, that's now officially the name for Windows on phones and sub-8 inch tablets) will include an Android runtime layer that'll let them run existing Android apps (both Java and C++) unmodified.... Astoria will in principle work with any old APK, without requiring the developer to do anything but publish the app in the store—as long as the APK sticks to the APIs that Astoria will provide. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/04/29/microsoft-brings-android-ios-apps-to-windows-10/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/04/29/mic...
  - cwyers 12y ago
    Apps get full access to Windows APIs. They don't get full access to Google Play APIs.
    - magicalist 12y ago
      Except they are building the Play Services APIs on top of the Windows APIs. > When we spoke to Microsoft about Astoria, the company would not tell us what proportion of the AOSP and GMS APIs would be supported, but it did confirm that it wouldn't be 100 percent; there will be APIs that Astoria does not provide, and accordingly, APKs that use those APIs will not run. > On the flip side, Astoria will offer some integration points with Windows so that Android devs can, with minor alterations, support features like Cortana in their apps.
deleted 12y ago
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bkovacic 12y ago
Blackberry tried to run Android apps directly on Blackberry. Microsoft is just giving you an easy way to migrate your apps. It's a different thing.
vxNsr 12y ago
My understanding is that this is different from Blackberry's play because windows won't be running a vm of android, instead the code itself is now easily compilable in visual studio as a windows 10 apk.

cwyers 12y ago

This isn't the strategy Blackberry tried. This is about making code portable, not compiled binaries.

magicalist 12y ago
Can you explain how that would help? Also, it appears that it is indeed about allowing compiled binaries to run unmodified. > Specifically, Windows Mobile (and yes, that's now officially the name for Windows on phones and sub-8 inch tablets) will include an Android runtime layer that'll let them run existing Android apps (both Java and C++) unmodified.... Astoria will in principle work with any old APK, without requiring the developer to do anything but publish the app in the store—as long as the APK sticks to the APIs that Astoria will provide. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/04/29/microsoft-brings-android-ios-apps-to-windows-10/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/04/29/mic...
- cwyers 12y ago
  Apps get full access to Windows APIs. They don't get full access to Google Play APIs.
  - magicalist 12y ago
    Except they are building the Play Services APIs on top of the Windows APIs. > When we spoke to Microsoft about Astoria, the company would not tell us what proportion of the AOSP and GMS APIs would be supported, but it did confirm that it wouldn't be 100 percent; there will be APIs that Astoria does not provide, and accordingly, APKs that use those APIs will not run. > On the flip side, Astoria will offer some integration points with Windows so that Android devs can, with minor alterations, support features like Cortana in their apps.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

bkovacic 12y ago

Blackberry tried to run Android apps directly on Blackberry. Microsoft is just giving you an easy way to migrate your apps. It's a different thing.

vxNsr 12y ago

My understanding is that this is different from Blackberry's play because windows won't be running a vm of android, instead the code itself is now easily compilable in visual studio as a windows 10 apk.