A story that almost got lost this week at the Consumer Electronics Show is that Microsoft, along with a third party, is working on making the Windows Phone platform Android-compatible. There is hardly anyone developing anything for the Microsoft platform, so Microsoft is trying to get a leg up by adding in the thousands of applications people are developing for Google’s competing platform.
It makes sense as a strategy for Microsoft. Its phones are a niche product, underpowered and the most expensive in the industry, so its best hope in getting software support is to borrow it from another platform. But it shows you how quickly the world can change, especially when you are talking about technology. There was a time when Microsoft could boast of having the most applications, and others in the industry were doing their best to be Microsoft-compatible. But that was a long time ago, and now the company is gamely trying to catch up with a world that has gone on ahead.
