Microsoft needs "to do a better job of telling the world" about Windows 8's features as a "fully-fledged" HTML 5 application platform, the company's general manager of platform strategy, Tim O'Brien, said today.
Speaking at a session on 'day zero' of Microsoft's Build 2013 conference in San Francisco, O'Brien reminded delegates that Windows 8 "is the only platform today that provides HTML 5 as a fully-fledged application for the device."
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However, O'Brien lamented Microsoft's effectiveness so far in communicating what he sees as this edge for developers.
"This is a story that I think we need to do a better job of telling, and letting the word out about," he said.
"There's a huge community of web developers today that are very well-versed in these type of skills, and can bring those skills to Windows and use them to build Windows store applications," said O'Brien, before adding that the company had crossed the 100m download threshold for the Windows app store back in January 2013, but would still like to populate the store more effectively.
"We announced [HTML 5 application support] at Build 2011 in Anaheim [California] and here it is, early-mid 2013, and I still talk to developers, reporters ,analysts - smart people who pay attention to the space - and they still think 'Oh, that just means you have great HTML support in your browser'," continued O'Brien.
"No. It means you can actually go native with HTML 5, but people still see HTML 5 as a synonym for web app. We've confused - maybe that's not the right word - we've disrupted that by implementing HTML 5 as an application platform."
O'Brien also told Computing that Windows 8 and its ARM-based offshoot Windows RT are still seen as identical in app development terms, with "the overwhelming majority of app store applications" running on both Windows 8 and Windows RT and, as a result, Microsoft is remaining "as committed to it as we've ever been" to the platform.
Keep checking back to Computing for the rest of the week as we bring you all the latest news live from Microsoft Build 2013.
