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Analyst Watch: The end of mobile and the future of client-side development



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January 3, 2012 —  (Page 2 of 3)
While users will face more complicated purchasing options, developers will also face an array of choices in programming languages and models. It is expected that Microsoft will put its energy behind an enormous push to encourage Windows ISVs to rewrite their apps for the new touch interface.

Microsoft's strategy with Windows is in essence to evolve the PC toward tablet devices, which is a departure from the approach Apple followed with its separate and different iPad and Macintosh product lines. For Microsoft, the converged strategy makes sense because its success will depend on bringing the depth and breadth of its Windows ISV ecosystem to its new tablet offerings in order to succeed. The iPad is a formidable competitor, and the success of Windows 8 devices will depend on the portfolio of touch applications that Microsoft is able to build.

For businesses, Microsoft's approach of offering a converged architecture gives it the best chance to retain as many of its customers as possible, as they will be able to support their existing enterprise application portfolios while offering subsets of their employees tablet devices. At this point, we have seen the future of the PC, and it is every bit a mobile device.

The future of client application development: The planned evolution of the PC paints a picture of a new world in which all devices are mobile and several platforms compete for the hearts and minds of developers. The broad client-side application developer community will stratify along the major competing platforms, including iOS, Android and Windows, each anchored by distinct languages and skills. These sub-communities will form broad platform ecosystems anchored to certain technologies such as Objective-C for iOS, Java for Android, and C# for Windows, though by no means exclusively.

The principle behind platform ecosystems holds that developers are more likely to invest in learning technologies, languages or frameworks that are more congruent with existing indigenous technology in the ecosystem or introduced by ecosystem leaders. Ecosystems may not be technologically pure and may share baseline technologies with other ecosystems (e.g., all may offer C/C++ as a language option). Developers may also explicitly choose to affiliate with multiple ecosystems. But the principles behind ecosystem building and leadership will prescribe the actions, strategic decisions and alignments that the various players in the market will make over the next few years as they exploit the natural developer ecosystems.



Related Search Term(s): client-side development, Microsoft, mobile, Windows 8, Windows Phone

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