Why doesn't Microsoft just build a custom version of Android? They get instant access to the vast android apps and they can integrate it deeper with the Windows ecosystem and also innovate in their own "fork" of android.<p>They could eventually surpass other versions of Android and become the goto android implementation.<p>I never understood why they didn't go that route - after all Android is open source. What am I missing?
Because the OS doesn’t matter nearly as much as the apps running on that OS, and Google only allows licensed OEMs to preload Google apps onto their devices (for a fee). Also, how strange would it be for Microsoft to pay Google billions of dollars for them to use their App Store? That would not only be them conceding that they couldn’t win on mobile, but that would also reduce them to yet another Android Phone manufacturer that has to spend tens of millions of dollars on low margin devices that won’t sell.<p>Also, Windows Phone was an amazing OS in its own right but failed largely because they couldn’t solve apps. It is impossibly hard to compete against Apple or Samsung in this space, especially when the OEMs didn’t want to play ball.<p>(Samsung, HTC and LG made a few Windows phones that they didn’t invest a lot of time on. They were most likely an expensive relationship maintenance activity to retain a partnership with MS. I believe this happened because MS imposed really strict guidelines for their OS experience right out the gate that didn’t really benefit anyone but Microsoft (OEMs make money on preinstalled apps, for example; that wasn’t allowed.) It was much easier for them to just pump more money on making great Android devices than trying to make Windows Phone great again)
I've read (rumor alert) that this is kind of what they originally had in mind with the WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux).<p>This would allow windows phones to run android apps from within Windows (though several obstacles remains, since the play store and other google services are proprietary)<p>Rumored this worked so well that Microsoft canned it in favor of UWP, because if windows could run android apps there would basically not be any need for UWP. As a result Microsoft changed focus and gave us WSL on the desktop instead.<p>The above could very well / likely be made up but I like that explanation.
Google Play Store isn't open, control of that is key.<p>It doesn't matter if the platform it's running on is "Microsoft Android" or something else - Google still controls the store
They did and canned it. It was called Astoria and from what I heard it worked really well. The media said the opposite but "Too well" was what one MS guy said to me. They had a ton of people working on the project.
The issue is that while Android itself is "technically" open source, it's a walled garden platform. Microsoft's own apps won't work without proprietary Google software. (Both Skype and Outlook won't launch without Google Location Services enabled, I haven't tried the launcher or the new Edge.)<p>They can't include Google's proprietary software in their fork, since part of the agreement for distributing that software includes a clause where you agree not to fork Android.<p>Even if Microsoft created their own location service for Android, changed their own apps, and made their own app store, they'd have to convince other app developers to support it, since Google has spent the last few years convincing everyone to build their apps on proprietary libraries and services. Essentially, they end up in the same boat as Windows Phone: Having a platform without apps, and not a strong incentive for developers to modify their apps to support it.
Microsoft would have to provide a compelling reason to use their own app store and other services that would replace the Google ones.<p>That's not to say it's impossible. Microsoft has been doing a lot of mobile development lately, and if you were trying to build a case for losing the Google Play store Office, Skype, and other business apps are a good place to start.<p>The pessimistic part of me thinks that BYOD is so prevalent these day that a pure "business phone" locked into the Microsoft ecosystem just wouldn't work. Maybe five years ago it would have appealed to enterprises wanting to roll out a fleet of employee devices but now a phone needs to be as appealing to the consumer as the business.
Alternatively why not build a transpiler for android apps? Java -> C# would be quite doable, and then just style the APIs and UI layouts similiar but too similar to end up in court. Then what dev wouldn't have a go if the process could be 90% automated? Instead they stayed in their own bubble of custom tech that didn't bring anything particularly revolutionary to the table, and failed to attract attention as a result.
If I recall correctly, Microsoft did intend on having Windows Phone 10 run Android applications (they leaked it early even) but then pulled it back last minute.
They don't get instant access, though.<p>As a developer I already have to support both Google's flavor of Android and Amazon's flavor of Android, with their own separate implementations of IAP, push notifications, etc.<p>I'd have to support MSFT's implementations too and you'd have to convince me (and the people who pay me) that it's worth bothering to do.
Are the days of Microsoft attacking all comers over? Or even trying to carve out their own niche in mobile? They seem much more interested in <i>playing nice</i> with the new platforms -- free Office on Android & iOS, for example, and good integration between phones and Windows on the desktop.<p>Of course, they've also sold Office on Mac <i>forever</i>.
Related / triggered by: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile | <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15432720" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15432720</a> (4 hours earlier, 361+ comments)<p>In case either one gets separated from the other as the front page drifts by.
MS is experimenting with deals to have apps pre-installed on Android phones. e.g. An HTC/Lenovo phone with MS Launcher, Edge, OneDrive, Office, Cortana, Bing will be enough of a Microsoft phone. They don't need to go and fork the OS.