According to the report by the Verge, Microsoft has confirmed an important message: it has suspended the development of touch-friendly Office Mobile apps for Windows 10 and it focuses on the iOS, Android, Web, and Win32 versions of the apps. Here, we write this post to show you much information about this news.
Microsoft Suspends Development of Touch-friendly Office Apps for Windows
Microsoft Stops Developing Office Mobile Apps for Windows 10
Word Mobile, Excel Mobile and PowerPoint Mobile debuted on Windows 8.1. And they have a touch-friendly user interface and are built using Microsoft’s modern Universal Windows Platform (UWP) framework.
Since they are introduced, they have been updated regularly, but now they are no longer updated. Using UWP means users can use the same app core on desktop Windows and Windows 10 Mobile. However, with less and less attention to Windows 10 Mobile, this compatibility is no longer a priority.
Microsoft Focuses on the iOS, Android, Web and Win32 Versions of the Apps
It has previously been reported by some persons that Microsoft has already changed the order of some of its important software developments, especially the mobile. iOS and Android are still the focus of their efforts but the mobile platform has been abandoned.
Now, Microsoft has confirmed this and it said in a statement to the Verge, “We are currently prioritizing development for the iOS and Android versions of our apps; and on Windows, we are prioritizing Win32 and Web versions of our apps.”
On the one hand, the decision is not surprising. The traditional Win32 desktop version of Office is the most powerful version of the app and the definitive. In fact, businesses always depend on this version, thus, Microsoft can only continue to develop it.
Besides, as part of Office 365, this desktop version is considered the newest feature. In this case, it is superfluous to develop a second version of Office.
On the other hand, this move is not without cost. And Microsoft has been trying to let the third-party developers build UWP apps. These apps have some desirable features: they are safer and can play better with power management capabilities. Besides, some parts of the UWP APIs are more modern. In addition, the UWP apps can play much better with high-resolution screens.
But UWP applications have some demerits: they can only run on Windows 10, and in broad terms, rewriting applications from scratch are required. As Windows 10’s market share grows, the former issue is less important and the latter issue has been solved in part by “desktop bridge” of Microsoft. However, these factors have limited UWP’s appeal.
The price might be worth paying if Windows 10 Mobile were on several hundred million smartphones, but now it is not. As a result, developers also decide to stick with Win32.
From these two aspects, you know why Microsoft suspends development of touch-friendly Office apps for Windows.