Posted on 04/10/2015 6:24:47 PM PDT by dayglored
At a recent Windows Hardware Engineering Community summit in China, Windows chief Terry Myerson revealed a number of newsworthy tidbits about Windows 10,...
At the very end of the news items, almost as an aside, came word of a unprecedented trial that Microsoft is undertaking "in partnership" with popular Chinese handset manufacturer Xiaomi. According to Myerson, a select group of Xiaomi Mi 4 owners (power users, he calls them) will be invited to test out a custom Windows 10 ROM on their devices. Devices that ship running not Windows out of the box, but Android.
Let me restate that, so the full implications of such a program are clear:
Microsoft has prepared a build of Windows 10 for phones, that is capable of powering Android hardwareThis is not just an emulator or even a dual-boot option, but an actual replacement for the stock Android firmware.
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(Excerpt) Read more at mashable.com ...
It is all the curiouser and curiouser (said Alice) that there hasn't been a spate of followup articles. Not sure about why that might be (the other articles I've seen just reference this one). Maybe everybody is so excited about Hillary announcing that they forgot that other stuff happens in the world besides her.
As far as we can tell from the article, the Windows software comes as a "firmware update" -- that is, downloadable software that gets flashed into the operating system ROMs of the Android device, turning it from Android to Windows. Replacing its brain completely, one end to the other.
Anyway, this is a VBD because (among other reasons) it gives Windows 10 an angle towards hardware exposure and marketshare that nobody had thought about. Potentially very exciting, if it proves viable.
Much thanks to FReeper tacticalogic for the heads up about this article.
Verrry cool.
I remember when IBM made OS/2 run on Windows.
Perhaps that's a neat demo of skills, but why would anyone outside of the programmers' community want to replace Android with Windows on a phone?
Perhaps they miss the occasional BSOD.
Continuity, we’ll need to see Wintenpointone.
So why would anyone want to pay double royalties for basically the same functionality?
Have you counted the number of FReepers who disdain Apple and would never get an Apple phone or tablet, but who also don't like Google and thus would prefer not to hold Android in their hand every day?
Those folks probably would be thrilled to have a real Windows computer in their hand, something Windows Phone could not quite be.
Hell, I have an iPhone that I like, and even I would be tempted to buy an Android just to have a pocket-sized copy of Windows 10.
Of course we have yet to learn what it can do in that form factor, but based on the existing Windows Phones, it might not be too bad at all.
Consider this too. No upgreades to Android on old phones, Win10 can bring old hardware back to life.
How do you figure double?
Outside of the iPhone, the best smartphone is an Android device and won’t be supplied with Windows anytime soon. Great way to get Windows on good hardware without impossible contracts.
And people wonder why Apple is so uptight about jailbreaking.
Royalties to both Microsoft and Google.....unless Microsoft is going to be giving away their OS.
My last phone was windows and solid as a rock. All it needs is.developer support. The universal platform Microsoft is pushing may work. Microsoft needs a deeper ecosystem.
Very few Windows tablets have internal GPS while all Android tablets seem to have it. I wonder why that is. Does Windows even support it without a vendor add-on?
They would have to. People are used to free or nearly free apps, free updates, etc.
Microsoft has to give it away. But no worries, they'll more than make it up in other related areas.
Some people work at getting an OS to work on as many hardware platforms as possible. Others work at getting it to run on as few as possible. The test bed isn't necessarily the final, or even the only application where it might be utilized.
omg don’t they realize the popularity of Android systems is that they DON’T work like Windows???
Also the Raspberry Pi B will get a version of Win10
“omg don’t they realize the popularity of Android systems is that they DON’T work like Windows???”
Hope. The post-Ballmerites are as clueless and incompetent as the Ballermites they replaced. I was laughing at this because the analogy that came to mind was bolting an Edsel on top of a Lexus.
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