Microsoft has a platform problem: it's building Windows 8 to be a great tablet operating system. But it already has a different platform for mobile phones, Windows Phone 7.
That's the exact opposite approach of Apple, which took its iPhone platform and moved it up to the iPad.
And it's a problem because developers who want to create mobile apps don't know which platform to target.
Earlier this year, Microsoft mobile head Andy Lees hinted that the two platforms would eventually merge.
Now, in an interview with CNET, the CEO of chipmaker NVIDIA seemed to confirm it, saying that he believes Windows Phone apps will run on Windows 8.
In other words, Windows Phone developers aren't wasting their time developing for a platform that currently has less than 2% market share -- they're also developing for the next edition of most popular computing platform in the world. (Windows ships on close to 400 million computers per year.)
More details will probably come out next week at Microsoft's big BUILD conference for developers. The company is reportedly planning a unified development platform code-named Jupiter, which will serve as a bridge between Silverlight (used on Windows Phone) and the new tablet UI for Windows 8.
NVIDIA is a big provider of ARM-based processors to smartphones and tablets -- it's number-two after Qualcomm. Windows 8 will be the first version of Microsoft's flagship OS to support ARM.
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
- Google Gave Microsoft A 'Gift' By Buying Motorola
- Microsoft Finally Admits Windows Media Center Is A Dud
- Google's Eric Schmidt: We Want Motorola For More Than Just Patents
FORMFACTOR FISERV FIRST SOLAR FINISAR FEI COMPANY FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR INTERNATIONAL
No comments:
Post a Comment