Are Microsoft’s Windows 10 Universal Aspirations Becoming Reality

Microsoft’s bold attempts to create a “universal” platform that runs on mobile, tablet, and PC seems to be picking up some steam lately as major app publishers have released or announced new Windows 10 universal apps.  Is this the beginning of a trend?

Recently NetFlix released their new Windows 10 Universal app targeted for PCs and tablets, with the mobile and XBox version coming available sometime after the first of the year.  They have joined apps by Uber, Shazam, and Twitter with a new Pandora app on its way in the next week.  All of these apps are built using the Universal Windows Platform.

Windows 10 is currently running on 110 million devices, a market that is made up largely of tablets and PCs.  However, the Universal Windows Platform is making development of mobile apps incremental to targeting apps for desktop and tablets and the affects for Windows Mobile may mean more main stream apps.  One of the key areas where apps are missing on Windows Mobile is banking, however just today Bank of America announced via Twitter that they are working on a Windows 10 app, presumably using UWP.

Microsoft has pinned it’s mobile platform hopes on Windows 10 and the belief that building software that can run seamlessly across any device will lure new developers as well as win back the ones who gave up on the Windows Mobile.  These new apps could be the first hint that this plan will succeed and make Microsoft mobile phones more popular with consumers.

What do you think?  Is this the beginning of a new Windows Mobile era, or just the last gasps of a dying platform?  Hit the comment link and let us know.