In the last two weeks, between Microsoft’s Build and Ignite conferences, we have seen plenty about Windows 10 on desktops and mobile.
In fact, based on announcements last week at Build about bridges that will help Android and iOS developers get their code into Universal Windows Apps, the Redmond company is putting a lot of effort behind this process.
These tools were announced during the Monday Day 1 keynote at Build and then they were shown hands on during demos throughout the Day 2 keynote. A lot of prime keynote time was dedicated to them much to the chagrin of several Windows developers I spoke with at Build.
For Microsoft the desire is to make it easier for developers on those other platforms to bring their offerings to Windows. One such company, King, used these same tools to port Candy Crush Saga to Windows Phone earlier this year and they are on track to bring more of their games over in the near future.
Whether developers will take advantage of these tools remains to be seen but there was a lot of buzz at Build last week about the bridges to do so.
The prospect of popular apps coming to the platform may help grow market share as could upcoming flagship hardware such as the rumored Cityman and Talkman Windows Phone handsets reported by several tech outlets.
Based on new numbers from Kantar, a company which tracks smartphone OS share worldwide, Windows Phone could use the bump.
Between last year’s Quarter 1 (Jan-Mar 2014) to this year’s Quarter 1 (Jan-Mar 2015) Windows Phone only saw .9% growth worldwide year over year.
The biggest gains were in France (+5.8%) and Germany (+2.1%) while the largest loss was in Great Britain (-1.2%).
In the same period Windows Phone showed a .1% loss in the United States which dropped it to 4.3%.
According to Kantar the only platform which gained any market share in the US was Android with just a .2% increase to 58.1%.
On in case you are wondering Apple's iOS lost .2% which dropped it to 36.5% overall in the US.
Source: Kantar
