OnLast year's developer conference Build 2015At the same time, Microsoft announced its goal of reaching over one billion Windows 10 installations within the next three years, with a review expected at Build 10, which will begin at the end of the month. In addition to assessing the market status of Windows 2016, Microsoft may also focus on Windows 10 Mobile, including how to attract more Android and iOS developers through cross-platform development. The company also anticipates focusing on the gaming experience and the anticipated changes brought about by HoloLens.
Microsoft recentlyAlready confirmedThis year's developer conference, Build 2016, will be held from March 3 to April 30 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, USA. Compared to last year's announcement that it would take three years to reach over 4 billion Windows 1 installations, Microsoft has already accumulated over 10 million installations in the first six months of Windows 10's launch. It is expected that relevant data will be further updated during this event, and how Microsoft will score Windows 10's market performance will also become a focus of attention.
This developer conference will also be held over three days. The first day's keynote will be delivered by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft's Windows and Devices Division, focusing on Windows and hardware and software devices. The second day's keynote will be delivered by Qi Lu, head of Microsoft's Applications and Services Division, and Scott Guthrie, head of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise Services Division, focusing on cloud services including Azure. Attendees will be able to participate in various course presentations during the conference and interact closely with Microsoft's internal engineers.
Detailed referenceMicrosoft Build 2016 official website, live content broadcast services will also be provided this time.
Windows 10 Mobile will be one of the key
However, compared to last year's focus on the development advantages of Windows 10, Microsoft is expected to place more emphasis on the mobile market, namely the development trends of Windows 10 Mobile, at this year's developer conference.
At MWC 2016, HP unveiled the high-end Windows 10 Mobile phone, the Elite x3. Besides being powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor for ample performance, it also features the Continuum mode, transforming the phone into a "PC." It's compatible with a wide range of Windows 10 apps, including PC-style data and operating experiences.
With Terry Myerson, Microsoft's head of Windows and devices, as the keynote speaker for the first day of Build 2016, we expect to see more details on Windows 10 Mobile hardware and devices, as well as future market development strategies. However, whether they will unveil new products with other hardware partners, or even introduce the rumored Surface Phone, remains uncertain.
Continue to promote cross-platform development
In order to attract more developers to join the huge market size built by Windows 10 last year, Microsoft not only released more development tools for different platforms, but also provided conversion tools (Project Westminster, Project Centennial, Project Islandwood, and Project Astoria) that can directly translate Web Apps, old Win 32 assemblies, .NET assemblies, iOS platform Apps, Android platform Apps, etc., allowing developers to design Windows 10 applications in a simpler way, or directly convert Apps into Windows-compatible versions. At that time, it really provided developers with a lot of big "beef".
However, although there were no major problems in migrating Web Apps, Win 32 assemblies, .NET assemblies, and iOS platform apps, Microsoft always faced bottlenecks in converting Android platform apps. Therefore, it eventually canceled the development of Project Astoria and instead acquired the cross-platform development tool Xamarin, allowing Android platform developers to convert their designed apps into compatible Windows versions.
Continuing to attract developers to the Microsoft Build team has always been the primary goal of the Build developer conference. Therefore, it is expected that more such topics will be raised and discussed during Build 2016 this year. In particular, Microsoft hopes to achieve more significant growth in the Windows 10 Mobile market. It also expects that this will help increase the content of Windows 10 applications, thereby attracting more people to join and use it.
HoloLens will have more applications developed
Microsoft will begin shipping HoloLens to developers who pre-ordered the device by the end of March. Further discussions regarding the device's design and application development are expected during Build 3. Microsoft considers virtual reality technology to be crucial, but is currently focusing its attention on the future application of augmented reality.
However, this development does not mean that Microsoft will abandon the development of virtual reality technology applications. In fact, HoloLens itself is also compatible with virtual reality technology applications. In addition, Microsoft is currently working with Oculus in the field of virtual reality technology development, and has also made some progress in content integration with Xbox One. For example, it was recently announced that "Minecraft" will launch a version compatible with Oculus Rift, but this game has also been demonstrated to be playable in augmented reality for HoloLens.
Microsoft is currently unable to determine when HoloLens is expected to enter the consumer market, but it is expected that after accumulating more development experience and content integration, Microsoft will be able to put this product into the mass market at a faster speed.
Games will become the key to the development of the Windows platform
It has to be admitted that gaming content is a very important development project on both Android and iOS platforms, and gaming content accounts for the highest proportion of profits. Therefore, if Microsoft wants to further expand the market size of Windows 10, integrating gaming content into the cross-platform gaming experience will become an important key.
In a recent update, Microsoft has confirmed that games promoted on the Xbox One platform in the future will also be available on the Windows 10 platform. At the same time, the game list will follow the user at all times, allowing seamless play regardless of the hardware platform used. This means that Microsoft hopes to allow users to play any game in a cross-platform manner, rather than being limited to playing on specific platform devices.
To further achieve this development goal, it seems that it would be easier to achieve it if all devices use the Windows 10 architecture and content is designed in the form of Universal Windows Apps. This same user experience may also be extended to Windows 10 Mobile devices, meaning that users will be able to use the same game on Xbox, PC, and mobile hardware platforms, thus ensuring that the gaming experience is not interrupted by different devices.
