Microsoft opens Windows 10 to Apple, Android apps

Opening up new vistas for India's nearly 1.6 million-strong developers community, Microsoft has unveiled a set of software development kits to help them adapt Android applications to the upcoming Windows 10 operating system.

The launch date for Windows 10 has not been announced yet, but is expected to be before the festival season this fall.

With Microsoft targeting one billion devices with Windows 10 in the next few years, the software development kits (SDKs) announced yesterday by its officials at the major annual conference would open up the developers, including those from India, to a new set of market that includes all kinds of devices.

India's developer community is the second largest in the world after the US.

"Microsoft has bold ambitions for platforms that empower developers across Windows, Azure and Office," Indian-American Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, told the gathering of developers at the annual Build Conference here.

"Together, we will create more personal and more intelligent experiences that empower billions of people to achieve more," he said.

Windows 10 offers unique scale and opens up new platform opportunities for developers, company officials said.

On the first day of the three-day annual conference, Microsoft showcased several new features in Windows 10, from new capabilities to scale applications across devices to new ways for developers to build code for Windows 10.

"Windows 10 is going to enable you to reuse your Web code, your .NET and Win32 code, your Android, Java and C++ code, to build amazing new applications, bringing the code over, extending it, putting it in the Windows Store, and reaching 1 billion Windows 10 customers," said Terry Myerson, Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Operating Systems.

"Today, we're announcing that you will be able to compile the same Objective-C code that's being used in iOS applications within Visual Studio on Windows.

"Enabling you to leverage that code and extend it with the capabilities only found on the Windows platform," he said.

During the conference, company executives detailed ways in which developers can create a single app that scales across all Windows 10 devices, automatically adapting to different screen sizes.

To help every developer be more productive, Microsoft announced new tools and runtimes for multiple platforms and devices.

Microsoft also released Visual Studio 2015 Release Candidate, which makes it easier for developers to build and deploy applications to Windows, Linux, iOS and Android platforms.