On Wednesday, Microsoft will reveal full details of the new Windows 10 operating system, which is said to offer a much improved user experience and plug the gap between desktop and mobile devices.
Whilst the launch will mainly focus on the desktop features of Windows 10, it is being rumoured that Microsoft will also announce Android app support on Windows Phone devices.
Windows accounts for less than 3 per cent of the smartphone market and by offering support for Android apps will hope to win back a share of the market and reduce the gap between itself and Android/iOS.
Currently Microsoft has approximately 527,000 apps for Windows devices, compared to 1.3 million in the Google Play store and around the same amount in Apple app store.
For example, the hugely popular taxi app Uber only became available on Windows phone in mid-2014. Snapchat, which has recently been valued at $10 billion and is one of the most popular messaging apps among young people in the US, UK, Australia and Canada still isn’t available to Windows Phone users.
This is of course the problem with Windows Phones, that the choice is just so limited.
Should Microsoft decide to go down the route of offering Android support, the benefit would be that users would no longer need to ditch their Windows device in order to use all of their favourite apps.
Furthermore, by offering Android support, Microsoft would almost instantly see a flood of new applications become available to its mobile eco-system.
The fact that the move to offer Android app support on Windows phones is set to be announced at the launch of Windows 10 is also significant as Microsoft’s new operating system is said to see the company take its first steps towards offering an improved single operating system that unites mobile and desktop.
Source: http://tech.thaivisa.com
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