Mike Johnson is a writer for The Redmond Cloud - the most comprehensive source of news and information about Microsoft Azure and the Microsoft Cloud. He enjoys writing about Azure Security, IOT and the Blockchain.
I completely disagree with the comment that BB10 is a lot like iOS, it is nothing like iOS. It has a RTOS, the multi-tasking is night and day different from iOS. The hub and flow I/F is not matched or similar to anything else and Apps (even 3rd party apps) can be embedded into the hub (Evernote). Minimized apps are only vaguely similar to Windows live tiles and BB10 can run Android apps. The only similarity that BB10 has to iOS is that it has icons and touch.
You’re wrong that Microsoft should have made the Windows phone OS into a tablet OS. If they would have done that, who would have developed for it? What audience would it have had? Only way to get developers to write apps for a platform is to give them users. Microsoft leveraged their PC market to guarantee apps for the Windows store. And Windows store apps easily be ported to Windows phone.
By the way, I like the idea of merging the desktop OS with a tablet OS for many other reasons as well.
Since Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 run on the same kernel I think it would be pretty easy to make apps that work on Windows 8 work on Windows Phone. The only thing to worry about is the size and making the apps fit the bigger screen. apple has done it between the iphone and ipad so why couldn’t Microsoft do the same? The reason I think they didn’t make Windows Phone into a tablet OS is they wanted full office to work on it but I don’t think they needed full office to work on it. Windows Phone 7 already has its mobile version of office that would have been fine.
This may happen anyway. It looks like Microsoft might be letting bigger screen’s (up to 6.5″) use Windows Phone 8, so we may see smaller tablet like devices on the platform anyway.
The main reason people are confused with RT is because it looks and acts so much like Windows 8 minus the desktop app support. If they used Windows Phone 8 ( or made RT look more like Windows Phone 8) then it would have cut down on a lot of the confusion. Consumers are very simple minded, they see 2 things that look similar and they expect them to have the same functionality. People would not expect to run desktop apps on Windows Phone 8 if it were on a tablet. I get questions all the time asking if RT will run specific desktop apps and I have to tell them RT won’t run any desktop apps except IE and Office which were made for RT. If Microsoft wanted an inexpensive, light OS to run on ARM tablets Windows Phone 8 is it.
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I completely disagree with the comment that BB10 is a lot like iOS, it is nothing like iOS. It has a RTOS, the multi-tasking is night and day different from iOS. The hub and flow I/F is not matched or similar to anything else and Apps (even 3rd party apps) can be embedded into the hub (Evernote). Minimized apps are only vaguely similar to Windows live tiles and BB10 can run Android apps. The only similarity that BB10 has to iOS is that it has icons and touch.
I was talking about the look, not functionality and icons is enough for apple to sue, look what it’s trying to do to Android.
You’re wrong that Microsoft should have made the Windows phone OS into a tablet OS. If they would have done that, who would have developed for it? What audience would it have had? Only way to get developers to write apps for a platform is to give them users. Microsoft leveraged their PC market to guarantee apps for the Windows store. And Windows store apps easily be ported to Windows phone.
By the way, I like the idea of merging the desktop OS with a tablet OS for many other reasons as well.
Since Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 run on the same kernel I think it would be pretty easy to make apps that work on Windows 8 work on Windows Phone. The only thing to worry about is the size and making the apps fit the bigger screen. apple has done it between the iphone and ipad so why couldn’t Microsoft do the same? The reason I think they didn’t make Windows Phone into a tablet OS is they wanted full office to work on it but I don’t think they needed full office to work on it. Windows Phone 7 already has its mobile version of office that would have been fine.
This may happen anyway. It looks like Microsoft might be letting bigger screen’s (up to 6.5″) use Windows Phone 8, so we may see smaller tablet like devices on the platform anyway.
The main reason people are confused with RT is because it looks and acts so much like Windows 8 minus the desktop app support. If they used Windows Phone 8 ( or made RT look more like Windows Phone 8) then it would have cut down on a lot of the confusion. Consumers are very simple minded, they see 2 things that look similar and they expect them to have the same functionality. People would not expect to run desktop apps on Windows Phone 8 if it were on a tablet. I get questions all the time asking if RT will run specific desktop apps and I have to tell them RT won’t run any desktop apps except IE and Office which were made for RT. If Microsoft wanted an inexpensive, light OS to run on ARM tablets Windows Phone 8 is it.