‘Switch to Windows Phone’: A Microsoft app for Android

Microsoft has a new strategy in its campaign to get users to switch to its Windows Phone platform. In its latest attempt, Microsoft will be releasing an Android app – “Switch to Windows Phone”, to make it easier for potential users to switch from Android to Windows Phone.

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The Microsoft app will scan the apps on your Android device and offer their Windows Phone equivalent for your next phone.

Once installed, the app will save your list of apps and associate it with your Microsoft account. Once users get their Windows Phone device, then the Windows Phone version of the app will pull this list from account. It then offers to install the Windows Phone equivalent of your apps on your phone, and if such an app doesn’t exist, looks for alternatives and offers to install those.

Is this strategy going to work, though? Don’t expect it to. Windows Phone 8 has a far smaller app ecosystem as compared to Android’s Play Store. While the Play Store currently holds about 800,000 apps, Windows Phone only has about 135,000 – less than one-fourth.

Sure, Android also has a lot of useless apps pushing that number up, but the useful apps obviously outnumber the former by a large margin – and that’s what will keep the Android users sticking to the platform.

App availability has been Windows Phone’s biggest shortcoming. Praised for its user interface and functionality, most reviews of the OS have canned it for its serious lack of apps. Maybe Microsoft should focus on getting more apps on the Marketplace instead, which itself could attract users to the platform without the need for such tactics.

The app makes use of Quixey’s search engine, which specializes in app searches. Quixey will consolidate descriptions, reviews, and reports about apps other information in order to recommend similar apps. Additionally, the search engine also offers recommendations based on the user’s needs and search habits.

Switch to Windows Phone is exclusive to Android only, and is not going to release on iOS. Microsoft has earlier engaged in similar campaigns to convince users to switch to its platform. In November last year, Microsoft had gone head-on with the iPhone 5, claiming its Windows Phones were better options.

One Comment

  1. I see that Microsoft is getting quite desperate with all these Fail attempts to make Android users switch to their platform. I personally like WP8 but it’s not as good as Android specially the lack of apps! So, instead of releasing useless apps on other platforms to promote its own, Microsoft should focus more on making their platform even better and get some more developers to release their apps on WP8.

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