
How Satya Nadella is taking on Apple and Amazon - richardboegli
http://www.afr.com/technology/technology-companies/microsoft/how-satya-nadella-is-making-microsoft-cool-again-and-taking-on-apple-and-amazon-20161118-gssfb1
======
pjmlp
Please do, lately I have been having more fun with my Lumia devices than the
Android ones.

Coding for UWP (aka WinRT) is a pleasure compared with the Android chaos,
specially having a common OS OO ABI for multiple languages and tools that
don't feel permanently in alpha stage, regardless of the amount of PhDs able
to game the hiring process.

~~~
bitmapbrother
Given your animosity towards Android and all things Google I'm really not
surprised. I recently installed Android Studio on my Mac and was pleasantly
surprised how well the IDE and emulator performed. This was in stark contrast
to the pig that is Visual Studio that I installed on my PC that sprayed 30GB
of data all over my SSD.

~~~
pjmlp
Not everyone has nice employers giving SSDs and I bet most likely 16GB.

On the other hand VS runs properly on a HDD with 8GB.

As for Android, since you only installed Studio for the first time, let me
explain it how it goes:

\- Data binding introduced at Google IO 2015, still doesn't work in all use
cases;

\- The new layout constraints introduced for Android N, are still work in
progress. In some cases blueprints and actual UI get out of sync, crash or
don't expose certain attributes;

\- Between the Camera and Camera2 API, I am not sure which one is worse;

\- During two years anyone using the NDK was left unsupported, only after
InteliJ announced CLion, did Google announced it would add its plugins to
Studio. It took two more years to finally have some decent support for the
NDK;

\- Which since the move to Gradle had only the ndk-build documented, with some
information scattered around how to use the new unstable Gradle plugin,
followed by another plugin on the stable Android. But actually the way forward
is to use cmake;

\- There is hardly a Support Library release that doesn't have regressions;

\- The Java fork, that is increasingly causing friction with Java libraries;

\- The Jack compiler still doesn't support all of the Android own tooling;

\- Fragments and activities, oh well....

\- Gradle execution speed measured in minutes;

\- The deprecated API between releases;

\- Hardware accelerated 2D actually depends on how the APIs are used;

Stopping here even though I could easy add a few additional ones, but any
Android developer can happily add some more bullet points here.

~~~
fjrieiekd
The support library regresssions, oh god, this +1000000. It appears that the
prevailing attitude is release first, then maybe fix based on developer
complaints.

Then there is the mess of manufacturer bugs, but that isn't strictly google's
fault.

------
joshmn
If it's at all possible to consider Microsoft the "new Apple" (at least as far
as hardware goes), it's worth a thought: Will Microsoft do what we've been
asking Apple to do with the iPad Pro all along: give it a real OS.

Obviously, it wouldn't be an iPad Pro form factor, and Surface already runs
Windows 10. But I'm sure you're following.

A Windows Phone with the ability to run ("native") Windows software would be
an incredibly interesting play.

Asus ZenPhone houses an Intel Atom... Windows also has their little Linux
thing... Android is Linux-based... Project Astoria was a thing...

This could be really fun to watch.

~~~
gressquel
I think they should push the Project Astoria part. I know they are worried
people will stop developing Windows Apps but I believe if they can gain a
significant mobile market share going down the Astoria part, developers will
soon start to think "hey, I might just make a native windows app since so many
already use my Android app emulated on Windows".

The duopoly is being abused. I am a iOS developer and I hate the 30% cut they
take off my income. Their appstore algorithm favours established actors even
when their product is far worse. I have seen apps that doesnt even boot on
iOS9 ranking higher in the search results page than mine.

And lets not forget the Spotify vs Apple case.

The consumers need a third mobileOS to bring some competition. It is becoming
stale with Apple and Android.

~~~
joshmn
WebOS, how I miss you.

~~~
micaksica
WebOS was far ahead of its time, and the shitty hardware all but killed it.
FFOS seemed to be what WebOS was, but that didn't go anywhere, either.

I think the big problem a new OS will have is compatibility with existing
iOS/Android software stacks. You _need_ to be able to run one or the other
until you get market share for your own applications, because the majority of
the populace wants their bread-and-butter Facebook, Snapchat, et al and these
companies will not give your upstart OS any love until you have users.

~~~
joshmn
Not sure why you're getting downvoted.

I was a Palm Pre user from day 1. I loved everything about WebOS. I still do.
I agree with your points completely.

~~~
micaksica
Downvotes on HN these days are slowly becoming as bad as Reddit: it's no
longer "downvote this if there is no argument or there is no added meaning to
this conversation", as much as it can be "I disagree with this statement."

The Pre was a fantastic device and did a lot of things right from a UX
perspective, IMO. The hardware was terrible and there wasn't any mind paid
toward securing anything really, but it was a breath of fresh air in the
duopoly.

------
rbanffy
The trail of dead products (and companies) is not exactly encouraging.

~~~
weego
Obviously I completely agree, but the Surface line of hardware so far is good
quality and feels coherent if a tad expensive for me. Expanding the product
line from phabletey to large desktop could work for them.

~~~
rbanffy
They have well built products (I still find the Surface Studio a bit
gimmicky), but they are not much better than what their partners and
competitors offer.

And, if they ever get to the point of having something that is much better
than what their partners have, I imagine there will be a lot better support
for Linux on the market.

------
Fej
> Mr. Nadella, however, said the company was not going to launch into a device
> category without bringing something different to the table

Continuum, done right.

------
seibelj
It's too much of a risk to develop a top tier app on a risky platform like
whatever MS comes up with next.

~~~
gressquel
Agree, too much risk for indie developers. But for companies like SnapChat its
all about being anti-Microsoft and preventing anyone creating a snapchat app
for its phone platform.

------
i_are_smart
I hope they present and push a focus on security with whatever they do. I use
android because I don't like apple, but it seems like there's a new critical
android vulnerability every 2 weeks, and they all take 4 - 6 months to
actually get the patch to my phone.

~~~
bitmapbrother
They should probably start with their desktop OS first.

------
Numberwang
As someone who can't stand apple yet also is getting bored of Android apps
(linux) crashing every 5 minutes, I feel it would be great if Microsoft could
release something new to the market with the same reliability as their Desktop
OS.

------
acqq
I've read the article, and it's the opposite of what the title says. The
article writes about "rumors" but Nadella hasn't said anything to support
them.

I'd call it a click-bait, YMMV.

~~~
sctb
We updated the title from ‘Microsoft CEO hints at Surface phone with talk of
an “ultimate mobile device”’, which breaks the guidelines by editorializing.

