Microsoft's Invasion of Android

Microsoft failed horribly with their attempt at the mobile market. The Windows Phone line never effectively captured more than a few percent of the overall mobile market. This was a spectacular failure that cost the Redmon Washington company more than a few pretty pennies. Microsoft proved they learned very little from their battles in the home console market by not keeping hold on exclusives for Windows Phone. Instead of keeping their own products exclusive in the mobile world to their own hardware, they openly supported iPhone and Android. To make matters worse, many instances over the years popped up where the iPhone or Android version of an app was updated many times before the Windows Phone version received one update. This didn’t help Windows Phone improve its market share at all. With Android though, Microsoft has been working on infiltrating the operating system more and more, so to speak.

Microsoft has a plethora of software that they can bring to platforms they decide to support. From Office products (Word, Excel, etc) to miscellaneous products (such as Cortana), Microsoft has a breadth of apps and services that is hard for any competitor to touch. It seems that Microsoft is converging on Android with these apps and services, much more than they ever attempted on their own Windows Platform.

Cortana was one of those “killer apps” that Windows Phone needed. So, what does Microsoft do at the first opportunity? Of course, they port Cortana to Android. That makes sense to only Microsoft. Some would say this is because Microsoft is becoming a “software” company again rather than a “hardware” company like they attempted with Windows Phone. I disagree. I think this is more of an infiltration of the Android market by Microsoft. How so?

Cortana was recently updated to include the ability to assign her to the long press of your home button on Android. This was once not possible without a complicated hack as Google had a stranglehold on that button for their own digital assistant.

Android users can already download Word and other Office programs and use them with their Office 365 subscription.

Couple all of that with the fact that Microsoft probably has more apps on Android than Windows Phone or iPhone and it is clear, the house that Bill Gates built has their eyes firmly set on the Android platform. Much like they took over the home computer market and then let others build the actual computers, I think they are planning a similar plan of action with Android. Sure, they didn’t create Android or have much to do with the underlying code, it is all open source and they could have been working on their own version of Android for years now. Just waiting to unleash it onto the world.

Think about this, Windows 10 is taking steps to include full Linux. Linux is the basis of Android (I believe BSD Linux is the basis of iPhone and MacOS X+). Microsoft has been working to better familiarize themselves with Linux and various Linux flavors of which Android is just one more.

I understand Microsoft is working on the Surface Phone for release at some point but I don’t think it will ever actually release. At least not in the form we are thinking it will. I think Surface Phone will be the debut of Microsoft’s take on Android, similar to how Amazon forked the operating system for their Kindle series of devices (including the horrible Fire Phone).

Okay, just how do I come to that conclusion? I am not completely insane, finish this article and it will make sense to you as well.

Just look at Microsoft’s Google Play page for proof they are “taking over” and planning an infiltration of sorts. Microsoft represents a ton of genres and categories on Android – from casual games (top row) to office productivity and communication (Outlook and Skype), the Redmon company has something for, almost, everyone. The only popular properties that Microsoft controls that are not available on Android right now are Killer Instinct and Halo or any of the as yet never released on mobile Rare games.. Halo has a couple of overhead shooter gamers available only on Windows Phone and PC (I just saw there is an iPhone version of Halo Spartan Assault) so they still have that exclusive.

Now, considering Microsoft has a new piece of phone hardware coming, who wants to take bets that they have Halo for it? What about Killer Instinct? What about some of those Rare games? Those would be great games to have available on a new platform such as the Surface Phone. If Microsoft was to fork Android and create their own take on it then that would open their platform to thousands of developers that are looking for a less crowded marketplace for their games to shine, yet no expend much energy to get there. By forking Android, or possibly including enough Android in Surface Phone, Microsoft could offer a nice red carpet to developers looking for greener pastures. Like I said already, I don’t think Surface Phone will “surface” (sorry, had to) in a form we think it will take.

Microsoft already has Windows 10 and Windows Mobile 10, or is it Windows 10 Mobile, anyhow, the idea is that programmers can write once and compile to whatever platform in the Windows world they are aiming for (Windows computers, mobile devices and tablets, or Xbox One). Now, if Microsoft forks Android and includes that in an update for the Windows 10 platform they could bring in many more developers. More developers mean more games. More games and content means potentially more sales of the hardware. This is arguably the reason many did not support Windows Phone – that it did not have the apps they wanted. By forking Android and including it in the Surface Phone, Microsoft essentially does what Sega did with the Dreamcast (for more on why the Dreamcast failed check this article out) – offer multiple development and publishing environments in one platform.

Microsoft forking Android would allow them to bring the mobile operating system into the desktop world, a place it has not even attempted to penetrate (at least officially). Microsoft has proven they will produce software for the competition before (Office was also available for years on MacOS for instance). Their work on Android, in and of itself, may not be a true sign of their possible intent to take over the platform. Once you think about their integrating Linux into Windows 10, it becomes apparent that there could be plans to integrate Android as well (which represents the one area that Microsoft has not found success).

By integrating Android into Windows 10, and Surface Phone, Microsoft could potentially usurp sales of devices from at least the smaller handset makers. It would also make sense for those handset makers to seek out licensing with Microsoft to create Surface Phones if Android is “compatible” out of the box. This could bring a significant dent in penetration for pure Android devices if Microsoft handles things correctly.

Microsoft forking Android would give them access to the inner workings of the operating system so they could expand the usefulness of apps such as Cortana. A Microsoft Android based Surface Phone could bring over the active tile system too, and with access to the inner portions it could keep the iconic “activity” that Windows Phone users loved – the tiles updating with information eliminating the user having to open those apps for the updates. This was much more intuitive to me as a Windows Phone user than having to swipe down on the top of the screen and then read each update. Having those updates on the apps I chose and on the home screen I could simply turn on my phone, get updated on weather, e-mail, price of Bitcoin, messages, and more all with a single look at the screen. I know, I sound incredibly lazy to feel that it is an inconvenience to open the notification area on Android. It is just annoying when there is a much easier way. Fans of Windows Phone have already made their version of the GUI from Windows Phone 7 and 8 but they lack the simple things like updates in the panels and such.

That is one area that Microsoft has not brought over from Windows Phone for some reason. The launcher. Sure, they have Arrow Launcher, my favorite launcher so far, but it is a far cry from Metro that was used on Windows Phone 7 and 8. Maybe their reason for not porting Metro is the lack of access to the inner workings of the operating system. This could be something they might be planning for a potential Android fork. Maybe.

For Microsoft to really do something in the mobile market they must start treating it like they do consoles and desktops. Stop producing apps for the competition. You don't see Microsoft porting Halo or Killer Instinct to the Playstation 4, or even the PS Vita (where MS has no product to compete). I don’t think Microsoft considers the Macintosh market competition as much as they consider it another avenue of revenue. The market share held by Apple desktops is decent in size (arguably better since they moved to X86 style processors over PowerPC). When Apple moved to X86 processors they opened their platform to Microsoft’s Windows coming in as a viable dual boot, and if Microsoft had their way, only booting setup.

Windows Phone seems to have been a test bed application that got a little farther out of the testing phase than intended. Microsoft seemed to have went against all the good they had going for them with each update. Such as removing the requirement of having a hardware camera button (I loved that feature). Also, they didn’t follow through with newer Lumia’s (or did not have Nokia do it anyhow) to feature the “so simple why is it not on all phones” feature of double tapping the screen to turn it on (this was a feature in the Lumia 520/521 and scattered across other early Windows Phone devices but was never standard).

It is almost like Microsoft wanted Windows Phone to fail. This is almost clear enough that a blind man could see it. Maybe the experience running a separate mobile operating system was worth the money they lost. Microsoft has interest in Android and they have proven in recent years, with their work on Linux, that they are not scared to port/hack what they like into Windows. Android could be no different than the next assimilation progression for Microsoft. Android on Surface Phone would probably break their losing streak on mobile by solving most of the problems people had with Windows Phone all in one fell swoop.

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Microsoft’s Invasion of Android