After months of anxious waiting, Microsoft finally made a statement that many have been waiting for: Smartphones which will be running Windows 10 – will be able to run applications written for Android and iOS.
Unfortuntely it is not a simple as it sounds. You cannot simply execute apk or ipa files for Android or iOS respectively, on a Windows 10 mobile device. What it does mean is that they are giving the means to developers to “convert” the application, preserving all functionalities and features.
In order to convert an application, Microsoft has introduced developer tools, to port code based on Java and C ++ for Android and Objective C for iOS.
Recently, with the help of this tool the game Candy Crush Saga was ported from iOS to Windows Phone. It is clear that Microsoft is doing everything possible to save their mobile platform from their biggest limitation – the small number of applications and the lack of diversity in the Windows Phone Store.
Software developers for desktop computers were also not left out without some news.
The good news that applications for Web, .NET and Win32 will be equally easy to run in Windows 10, as they were in the previous versions. Programs on Win32 will have an isolated environment created for them, within which they will work. This is done primarily for the safety of the system and to preserve user data. In addition, this solution will allow to unload the program without leaving unnecessary files in the memory.
Currently, there are about 16 million applications on .NET and Win32, which are still actively used by the owner of PCs on Windows 7 and Windows 8, which means a guarantee that they will work in the new system and will be the key to a quick and smooth transition to Windows 10.