Microsoft's Windows Phone 8/Windows 8 app platform merger underway

Richard Goodwin

Microsoft's plan to get Windows 8 apps running on Windows Phone 8 devices and vice versa is now underway

A new job listing at Microsoft has confirmed the company’s desire to consolidate all three of its platforms – Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Windows RT – under one roof.

The end result of the initiative will mean apps like Angry Birds, once downloaded to your PC, could be seamlessly transferred to your smartphone or tablet - everything would be linked.  

Microsoft talked its vision for a unified future in the run up to the launch of Windows Phone 8, and where it saw the space going in the next few years - more touch, more mobile, better connected.

The Surface RT and Windows 8 were designed as examples of the company’s commitment to the new age of hybrid, touch-based, computing. 

All products – smartphone, PC, and tablet – will be linked together by the Windows core, Microsoft told us during its Surface launch, and that would eventually lead to a unified platform - the first of its kind.

This idea excited a lot of people, it sounded like the perfect ecosystem back then and it still does now, so it’s good to see Microsoft moving forwards with its plans. 

The Microsoft job listing says the company is looking for someone ‘to help our team bring together the Windows Store and Phone development platforms so that in the future the code you write for Windows Store apps would just work on the Windows Phone and vice versa.’

A unified platform where applications and games can be swapped from one device to another at the behest of the user would not only make Microsoft’s Windows platform more attractive to developers, it’d also aid Microsoft in closing the content gap between Windows Phone, iOS, and Android. 

Microsoft hasn't given any indication of when we can expect to be able to do any of this on our Windows Phone or Windows 8 devices, however, which means it’s still very much in the theoretical stages at present – active recruiting for the project has only just begun. 

That said, the ball is now rolling and Microsoft will be keen to improve Windows Phone 8/Windows 8/Windows RT’s reputation with consumers after a rather lacklustre entrance to the market - read our Surface RT review here - in late-2012.

Source: knowyourmobile.com