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Comment by joshmn | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

Astoria was amazing, I have a phone with the dev build it worked on at home with some Android apps on it. Ran great... Well, as great as Android apps run.

WebOS, how I miss you.

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.

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.

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.

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

Intel killed its smartphone x86 chip project in April[0] so that's unlikely to happen anytime soon. There are reports of MS planning to attempt to do x86 emulation on ARM but that strikes me as a long shot. Getting good compatibility and decent performance would be challenging to say the least.

[0] http://www.anandtech.com/show/10288/intel-broxton-sofia-smar....

[1] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/x86-em...

An interesting play to who exactly? How many people do you think actually want to run clunky Windows desktop apps on a phone? Windows phone was already an exercise in frustration. I can only imagine the new levels of frustration achieved from running desktop apps on it.

I would buy a Windows phone that I could put on a dock and use like my desktop (but understandably slower). That's where it is going (or should be), and that is where MS has the advantage.

Processor improvements are mostly going to efficiency rather than raw power these days, so time is on their side. Being able to carry your computer around and put it in a "desktop dock," or "laptop dock" would be amazing. It will make having separate phone apps and computer apps seem as kludgy as carrying an iPod, a computer and a flip phone was.

They're really close too. Shrink the surface a bit, make it cooler and put a cell radio on it. Boom!

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