Android apps on the Surface Pro

Why active Android apps on the Surface Pro is bad for Microsoft, Android, and developers

Microsoft aloof got 750,000 new apps for its Surface Pro book after accepting to lift a finger. This is acknowledgment to BlueStacks absolution an optimized adaptation of its Android App Player for Microsoft's newest tablet.

Problem is, plastering over the gaps in Microsoft's app ecosystem by installing an Android adversary is not activity to break annihilation — and it could accomplish things a lot worse.

One of the better challenges of absolution a new chic of accessory is ambience up an ecosystem of apps to abutment it. Do it appropriate — as Apple did with iOS, or Google did with Android — and it can be a solid foundation for massive sales.

Do it amiss —a acceptable archetype of this was BlackBerry's admission into the book bazaar with the PlayBook—and it agency that the adverse accessory will be absorbed to a activity abutment apparatus until addition pulls the plug.

Following the absolution of Windows 8, Microsoft is adverse the challenges of architecture its own app ecosystem. Apps are a cornerstone of the new platform, and the Redmond behemoth needs to advance and animate developers to body acute apps for the platform, apps that will animate bodies to embrace the new belvedere and buy new hardware.

Suddenly, Surface Pro users accept admission to three abode of a actor Android apps, all a few clicks away.

Now, in the abbreviate term, decidedly for those bodies who accept invested in a Surface Pro tablet, this is a acceptable thing. It gives them admission to a accomplished host of apps that aren't currently accessible for the platform.

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Topic: Microsoft Surface   

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Why active Android apps on the Surface Pro is bad for Microsoft, Android, and developers

Summary: Installing an Android adversary on a Surface Pro book is not the way to go to adhesive the gaps in Microsoft's app ecosystem.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes for Accouterments 2.0 | February 12, 2013 -- 20:53 GMT (12:53 PST)

Microsoft aloof got 750,000 new apps for its Surface Pro book after accepting to lift a finger. This is acknowledgment to BlueStacks absolution an optimized adaptation of its Android App Player for Microsoft's newest tablet.

Problem is, plastering over the gaps in Microsoft's app ecosystem by installing an Android adversary is not activity to break annihilation — and it could accomplish things a lot worse.

One of the better challenges of absolution a new chic of accessory is ambience up an ecosystem of apps to abutment it. Do it appropriate — as Apple did with iOS, or Google did with Android — and it can be a solid foundation for massive sales.

Do it amiss —a acceptable archetype of this was BlackBerry's admission into the book bazaar with the PlayBook—and it agency that the adverse accessory will be absorbed to a activity abutment apparatus until addition pulls the plug.

Following the absolution of Windows 8, Microsoft is adverse the challenges of architecture its own app ecosystem. Apps are a cornerstone of the new platform, and the Redmond behemoth needs to advance and animate developers to body acute apps for the platform, apps that will animate bodies to embrace the new belvedere and buy new hardware.

Suddenly, Surface Pro users accept admission to three abode of a actor Android apps, all a few clicks away.

Now, in the abbreviate term, decidedly for those bodies who accept invested in a Surface Pro tablet, this is a acceptable thing. It gives them admission to a accomplished host of apps that aren't currently accessible for the platform.

Problem is, what's acceptable for Surface Pro owners today is not acceptable for the belvedere as a whole. It agency that developers can finer avoid the beginning belvedere and instead focus on platforms that are added advantageous — iOS and Android. That's a cinch way to anticipate the belvedere from anytime affective above the beginning stage.

It seems that BlueStacks is aggressively targeting Windows 8 users. The aggregation has already partnered with Lenovo, which is bundling the Android App Player on its Idea-branded customer PCs. BlueStacks is acutely base a gap in the market, and at atomic one OEM believes that all-embracing Android is the appropriate move back it comes to Windows 8.

Trying to fix the shortcomings of one belvedere by shoehorning addition alongside it is not acceptable for anyone. It's not acceptable for Microsoft because it is highlighting its failings back it comes to creating an app ecosystem, and confusing developers from all-embracing the platform. It is not acceptable for Android because it will assuredly accord users a patchy acquaintance back some apps don't assignment as expected. And it is additionally not acceptable for app developers, who may able-bodied end up actuality abhorrent for problems that accept annihilation to do with their app, but instead with the way it is actuality run.

And not to acknowledgment the actuality that Android already suffers abundant from breach problems after abacus emulators into the mix.

Windows 8 and the Surface Pro accept to angle on their own two feet, and borrowing apps from the Android ecosystem isn't activity to advice either in the continued term.