NEW DELHI: Microsoft is reportedly considering bringing Android apps to Windows Phone and Windows. According to a report by The Verge, the company is seriously debating if it should allow Android apps inside the Windows and Windows Phone Stores. However, some inside the company are not in favour of a rival platform making inroads and believe that this could harm the Windows Phone platform.
Citing sources, the report also claims that the chipmaker Intel has been pushing Microsoft to provide Android apps in its Windows Store. It's worth pointing out that Intel has already demonstrated its dual-OS concept that runs both Windows and Android.
Software company BlueStacks has also been developing its emulation solution to allow Android apps to run on Windows and it ships its software with Lenovo and Asus Windows devices. It's not clear if the company is also in talks with Microsoft for the same.
It would be interesting to see how Microsoft implements Android apps on the platform. BlackBerry's BlackBerry 10 OS (and PlayBook OS) also supports Android apps but developers need to submit the apps separately to BlackBerry (or users need to sideload apps through third-party tools). Due to this, users don't get the latest version of Android apps on BlackBerry. The compatibility has not helped BlackBerry 10 grow its market share, so this may not be a sure shot formula for success.
There would be other issues as well including compatibility problems with apps that use Google services.
The biggest issue that Microsoft needs to address is to prevent erosion of developers' and consumers' trust in the Windows Phone platform, which is lagging behind Android and iOS in terms of both features as well as apps.
Incidentally, Microsoft-owned Nokia is also reportedly launching an Android smartphone dubbed Nokia X. The phone is said to run a forked version of Android, devoid of Google services.
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