Microsoft welcoming iOS and Android its impact on developer

Microsoft caught many off guard Wednesday when the company announced it would be embracing almost all developers in Windows 10, even if they develop primarily for competing operating systems.

In a significant departure from its previous mobile strategy, Microsoft is now welcoming iOS and Android developers to Windows — part of its more ambitious plan to get Windows 10 on one billion devices within "two or three years," as Microsoft's executive vice president Terry Myerson noted.

But if Microsoft wants to get on a billion devices, it will need to address its lingering app problem. Despite previous efforts to inspire developers, Windows is still far behind iOS and Android in terms of quantity (and, in many cases, quality) of apps. The Windows and Windows Phone Store together have 585,000 apps, according to Microsoft, while Android and iOS both have well over a million.

Closing this gap, and winning over developers, will be key to Microsoft's 1 billion devices goal, which is why the company is now turning to iOS and Android developers. The company is appealing to them through something it calls Universal Windows Platform Bridges, a series of programs that allow developers to port iOS, Android, web and and classic Windows apps to Microsoft's new Universal App Platform.

IMAGE: MICROSOFT

Android developers will take advantage of a program called Project Astoria while iOS developers will have Project Islandwood. The specifics of these programs are not yet clear — interested developers can sign up now to become early users — but Microsoft says both projects will only require a few minor changes to an app's existing code to make them Windows Phone-ready.

In theory, this seems like a huge win for developers and Windows users alike. Developers now have a way to support a new platform with minimal extra work while Windows Phone users stand to benefit from an expanded app catalog.

Back in the real world, however, many developers are not yet convinced.

Is it worth the effort?

Although the ability to reuse code is nice, plenty of developers we spoke with said simply having that ability wouldn't change their decision about whether or not to target Windows or Windows Phone.

Moshe Berman, a Brooklyn College '16 student who has developed on iOS says the announcement is "interesting" but that he has enough on his plate handling current projects.

"I'm definitely excited to see where this new Microsoft of open source is going, and this is a welcome move. How effective it is remains to be seen," Berman says.

It's also worth noting that for plenty of developers, the issue isn't so much around porting over code, but around maintenance and support.

The user base problem

Plenty of developers we talked to said the big problem they face is that there still aren't enough users on Windows Phone or who buy apps from the Windows Store on the desktop to necessitate the effort — even if it is minor — to move.

One lead iOS developer for a large social network told Mashable that this doesn't change his company's perspective towards Windows at all. The service has active development teams for Android and iOS, but last updated its Windows Phone app in 2013.

Another leading indie iOS developer told Mashable that "while this theoretically lowers the bar quite a bit, the biggest issue is still that there's effectively no installed base, and even if you try targeting the entire Windows desktop platform as well, there simply aren't many Windows users who buy apps like what most iOS developers make."

"So it solves a problem, but not the problem."Shane Elliott, the director of technology solutions at Stellar Digital Design Agency, points out that the "write once, deploy everywhere" solution "isn't exactly new." The problem with these solutions, Elliott says, is that "it never comes without the usual steep learning curve and migration cost in terms of time."

"The issue is that in order to get fully native, optimized code deployed on a platform, you simply can't get all the way there unless you write it natively. Doing otherwise requires my team to rely on some level of automation to compile the code down. I'm not convinced this is a problem that's been solved yet."

Still, that's not even why Elliott won't be moving any of his code over to Windows from iOS or Android. For Elliott, it's the migration itself that's the biggest problem.

Since the code originates on a different platform, the code will still need to be restructured to some extent

Since the code originates on a different platform, the code will still need to be restructured to some extent — what's called refactoring — to make it ready, Elliott explains, saying the idea of Microsoft replacing existing Google APIs sounds "like a terrifying prospect."

"In the end, I'd need to be convinced that I'm making the effort to move and refactor all that code onto a platform that offers some advantage," he says. "In terms of user base, Windows simply can't compete. So moving code to the platform with the smallest user base is just philosophically unwise."

Elliott notes Microsoft's approach feels like a move to win over new developers, rather than to migrate experienced ones. Still, he thinks Microsoft may eventually get to be where it wants to be, if it continues on the path of cross-platform development.

Elliott brings up a good point when it comes to refactoring and re-assessing what parts of the APIs are supported by Microsoft's new tools, and what parts need to be rewritten. For apps such as Candy Crush Saga — and potentially for clients for apps such as Snapchat or Instagram — the time necessary to port over code, even with optimizations, could still pale in comparison to taking the time to dedicate resources specifically for Windows.

It's also true that the less complex the app, the more it would makes sense to use the code-sharing tools. But for apps with very custom user interfaces and custom or complex API usage, porting code over will likely require a lot of work to get things to compile under Windows, and that's before we even talk about optimization.

The problem for Windows developers

Meanwhile, many experienced Windows developers are also troubled by Microsoft's more inclusive developer strategy. Those who have spent careers creating Windows apps are now concerned about their place in Microsoft's new ecosystem as iOS and Android developers can easily take their place.

To be clear, there will still be a need for developers who can create native Windows apps, particularly in the enterprise space. And, unlike BlackBerry's Android push, developers will still need to do some work to make their apps ready for the move, so knowledge of Windows will still be a valuable asset.

On its part, Microsoft has suggested this tension will sort itself out as users get a chance to actually get their hands on apps and provide developers with feedback. And executives maintain more apps and more developers will only make the platform stronger.

"Fundamentally, we believe that it's sort of the free market-system," Microsoft's head of Windows Phone Joe Belfiore said during a developer session at Build. "The end users will use ratings and in-app purchases to decide what they value the most, and that feedback goes back to developers, and you get a better result. So I don't think we're going to suddenly lose Windows 10's or Windows Phone's unique personality."

It's still worth a shot

The reality is, Microsoft is way behind in developer mindshare when it comes to mobile. That creators of some of the biggest apps on iOS and Android — Snapchat, Instagram and Lyft, to name a few — are nonexistent or ignored for years on Windows Phone has long been one of the platform's biggest, and most difficult to fix, problems. The best way to get developers to even consider Windows is to say, "hey, bring your code over to us from your platforms of choice."

If even a fraction of iOS or Android developers are willing to explore options on Windows, that could be enough to help Microsoft begin to finally catch up.

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