Microsoft makes it easier to adapt Android and Apple apps on Windows

Microsoft has embedded some of Google's Android software in the next version of its Windows operating system, a symbolically significant concession by the world's biggest software company as it makes its latest attempt to catch up with Google and Apple in mobile computing.

Co-opting a rival's technology was part of a set of announcements on Wednesday designed to lure developers of apps for Android and Apple's iOS operating system to Windows.

Microsoft claimed the technology adjustments would make it easy for developers to adapt their existing apps, written for rival smartphones and tablets, to run on Windows. The move was aimed at addressing the relative shortage of software in Microsoft's app store, a key weakness in its efforts to lure customers to Windows mobile devices.

Satya Nadella, chief executive, also used Microsoft's annual developer conference in San Francisco on Wednesday to show off the latest additions to the forthcoming Windows 10, including a new browser called Microsoft Edge.

The operating system, which the company has said will be launched "this summer", is central to the company's hopes of overcoming the weak uptake of Windows 8, which it had hoped would carry from PCs into the world of tablets.

Terry Myerson, head of Windows, said Microsoft hoped to have 1bn devices running Windows 10 within two to three years of its launch, from PCs to tablets, smartphones and Xbox gaming consoles. The latest version of Android is estimated to run on about 500m devices, with iOS on fewer than that, he added.

Letting Apple and Android developers adapt their apps for Windows is "an imperfect solution to an undesirable problem", said Geoff Blaber, an analyst at CCS Insight. The approach is similar to one already tried by BlackBerry and can lead to power inefficiencies and other issues, he added. However, he also called it "a necessary move to attract developers otherwise lost to Apple and Google".

The decision is unlikely to be "a silver bullet", added Al Hilwa, an analyst at IDC. But along with other moves Microsoft has made to make Windows 10 more appealing, from making upgrades to the software free in the first year after purchase to writing a single codebase that works across all types of devices, it should "make a big difference", he said.

Microsoft claimed that developers of iOS apps would need to make "very few modifications" for their software to run on Windows.

Early versions of Windows 10, which include reinstated features stripped out of Windows 8 to make it more "tablet-friendly", have been widely welcomed as a welcome advance on the current version.

Mr Hilwa said Microsoft has corrected the mistake it made with the Windows 8 operating system by deciding "to add killer mobile features to the desktop, rather than swap the desktop for a tablet".

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