Windows 10 on Phones + Peripherals
One thing I hadn't really thought about in the past despite mentioning related things is one way in which Windows 10 might actually boost Windows Phone sales. And that is USB device support. Obviously, Windows 10 isn't officially out and we have no SDK so the real world implications are yet to be seen. But one of the major misgivings I had about Windows Phone 7-8.1 was that there was very little in the way of support for external devices. The same is largely true of Android and iOS. T
This won't move much in the way of consumer sales but, in business scenarios this could have a serious impact. It gives a reason to build ruggedized devices with barcode scanners as probably the best example. If the API's for USB connectivity are the same/similar to those in use on the desktop then many existing products may even work out of the box or with very minimal changes.
While you do see some of this sort of thing on iOS and Android devices in some limited places it is rare because the skillset to get it working on those devices is hard to find. Most retail or industrial handhelds still run Windows CE or other (very old) embedded OS's.
Many companies were less than happy when Windows Phone wasn't able to replace these devices and also didn't come with a complimentary OS reboot for the CE/embedded world. Windows 10, for the first time has the potential to re-enable this vision it seems.
This won't move much in the way of consumer sales but, in business scenarios this could have a serious impact. It gives a reason to build ruggedized devices with barcode scanners as probably the best example. If the API's for USB connectivity are the same/similar to those in use on the desktop then many existing products may even work out of the box or with very minimal changes.
While you do see some of this sort of thing on iOS and Android devices in some limited places it is rare because the skillset to get it working on those devices is hard to find. Most retail or industrial handhelds still run Windows CE or other (very old) embedded OS's.
Many companies were less than happy when Windows Phone wasn't able to replace these devices and also didn't come with a complimentary OS reboot for the CE/embedded world. Windows 10, for the first time has the potential to re-enable this vision it seems.
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