Early last year, Microsoft announced Project Astoria, a tool designed to allow developers to easily port their Android apps over to Windows 10, a similar tool known as Project Islandwood was also announced for porting iOS apps to Windows 10. Now almost a year later, Microsoft has announced that it will not be going forward with Project Astoria.
This decision follows on from Microsoft's acquisition of Zamarin, a development platform that is designed to work across iOS, Windows and Android.
Writing in a blog post on the matter, Microsoft said: “We received a lot of feedback that having two Bridge technologies to bring code from mobile operating systems to Windows was unnecessary, and the choice between them could be confusing. We have carefully considered this feedback and decided that we would focus our efforts on the Windows Bridge for iOS and make it the single Bridge option for bringing mobile code to all Windows 10 devices, including Xbox and PCs. For those developers who spent time investigating the Android Bridge, we strongly encourage you to take a look at the iOS Bridge and Xamarin as great solutions.”
So now rather than porting older apps across, Microsoft is hoping that Xamarin will catch on and allow developers to easily create cross-platform applications, which will have a positive effect on the Windows app store.
KitGuru Says: Windows on mobile has always had a bit of an issue with developer support but Microsoft has been working to fix that over the years. Do any of you own a Windows Phone? Is it running Windows 10 yet?
@author its Xamarin, not Zamarin (2nd paragraph) 🙂
I have a Lumia 930 running the Insider Preview version of Windows 10. I’ve also heard, through Paul Thurrott, that the reason for the Astoria cancellation has little to do with Xamarin, and potentially more to do with Google… (I’m taking that with a grain of salt, but Google has form for messing with Microsoft. Think Youtube/Windows 8 app…)
❝my .friend’s mate Is getting 98$. HOURLY. on the internet.”….two days ago new McLaren. F1 bought after earning 18,512$,,,this was my previous month’s paycheck ,and-a little over, 17k$ Last month ..3-5 h/r of work a days ..with extra open doors & weekly. paychecks.. it’s realy the easiest work I have ever Do.. I Joined This 7 months ago and now making over 87$, p/h.Learn. More right Here`!b529➤➤➤➤➤ http://GlobalSuperEmploymentVacanciesReportsTime/GetPaid/98$hourly…. .❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:❦2:::::`!b529…….
I use Windows Phone (Microsoft Lumia 640LTE) but isn’t running WIN10 Mobile. Its only WIN8.1.
I hope Microsoft address this problem with the apps, because the Windows Mobile OS simply works great. I found it more reliable than android.