This is how Microsoft intends to close the "application gap" between Windows Phone and Android/iOS

While the ecosystem of Windows Phone applications has grown remarkably since its launch more than 4 years ago, this growthhas still been insufficient to catch up with platforms like iOS and Android. The proof of this is that while in Windows we have some 527,000 applications, including both Windows Phone and Windows 8, in Android and iOS there are 1.3 million of apps available (also adding, to be fair, smartphone and tablet apps).

Before that, someone could argue that many of those 1.3 million applications correspond to low-quality calculators, flashlights, and similar titles. But it is also true that, today, there are still a few relevant applications that are not available on Windows Phone (there is the case of Snapchat, for example far). We also have the problem that applications that are available many times are not updated often enough, due to less interest from developers in the Microsoft platform ( Twitter, Instagram).

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Microsoft is clear that the application problem persists, and for this reason it is preparing a series of measures to close once and for all the gap between Windows and other platforms"

And to those 2 problems I would add another one: the case of the applications associated with services, created by stores, banks, governments, and institutions to facilitate their use, and that in most cases they are only available for iOS and Android.

All of this creates a vicious circle in which Windows Phone finds it difficult to increase its quota due to lacking some applications that users users are interested, and at the same time developers do not create more applications because the system quota is too low.

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However, Microsoft is clear that these issues exist and have not yet been resolved. For this reason, according to what Mary Jo Foley tells us, they are preparing a series of measures to reverse the situation and close the application gap once and for all>"

One of them has to do with the universal applications, which although they are currently available as a tool for developers,will be enhanced in Windows 10, seeking to make it even easier to write the app's code once, and make it run well on all Microsoft platforms ( smartphones, tablets, PCs and console).

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If we add to this that in Windows 10 modern applications>the expected return or profitability of developing for Windows will increase significantly thanks to the arrival of this new operating system. That alone should be reason enough for many developers not yet working in the Microsoft ecosystem to change their minds."

"A Dream Team in charge of recruiting developers"

Additionally, Redmond is preparing more drastic changes at the organizational level. Specifically, they will seek to focus efforts on their ">Developer Experience Team, and will add many people who until now were working in other related areas of the company.

The Developer Experience Team will be ordered to make changes to its strategy, in order to attract more independent developers, start-ups and studentswho are not currently building apps for Windows 8 or Windows Phone.

There will be a team within Microsoft dedicated exclusively to recruiting, one by one, independent developers, start-ups, and students who aren't building Windows apps today.

This change consists of moving from a strategy of buying popular applications, along with promoting the Windows platform in a rather general way, towards one where developers are persecuted one by one, seeking to recruit them by giving them personalized attention and treatment.

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Redmond wants this team (the Developer Experience Team) to become a trusted advisor>helping them promote, sell, and monetize for their creations within Microsoft platforms ( Initiatives such as support for payment through mobile operators are framed under this line)."

In addition, all these efforts will also aim for developers to use Microsoft infrastructure and tools, such as Office 365 and Azure.

Plan B: Android apps on Windows 10

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Without contradicting the above, Mary Jo Foley also states that the idea of ​​allowing Android applications to run inside Windows still lives on inside Microsoft, but only in the form of a plan B>"

On a personal note, I think going the latter way would be one of the worst decisions Redmond could make, mainly because it would mean the death of Windows Phone as a differentiated platform: If Android apps already work directly on Windows Phone, why would anyone bother building a native app for Microsoft's OS? Also, it's a move that would hurt developers who have invested time and resources to create personalized experiences on Windows, and to top it all off, it's likely that the experience of user that such applications would provide would be quite poor, working in an environment other than their native system.

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For all this, hopefully during 2015 Microsoft&39;s other measures will be enough to shorten the application gap>"

Via | ZDNet In Xataka Windows | Where do apps go in Windows 8? On the state of the Windows Store and its future