Windows 10 changes how marketers think about mobile app development

When Microsoft unveiled its newest operating system, Windows 10, to app developers and Windows fans, they didn’t release a mobile version specific to mobile devices like in versions past. Instead, Microsoft made a version of Windows that runs on every device from mobile phones to desktop computers, with special views for what Microsoft calls “devices below 8 inches.” This speaks volumes about Microsoft’s vision for the future of mobile, and about how brands and marketers should begin thinking about mobile app development across platforms.

Microsoft didn’t make a mobile version—they made one version with views for “devices below 8 inches.”

Mobile isn’t some novelty—so mobile app development companies shouldn’t be thinking of mobile apps as some lesser cousin to their desktop counterparts. Windows 10 applications are designed to span form factors with a single codebase, changing the mobile development and desktop dichotomy to favor unification rather than specialized app development.

Microsoft removed the distinction between mobile development, tablet app development, and desktop development as far as mobile app developers are concerned. This implies that their ambitions for mobile will see smartphones morph into literal pocket computers, virtually indistinguishable from tablets apart from their size.

Microsoft sees mobile devices morphing into pocket computers, indistinguishable from tablets.

As tablets adopt cellular antennae and technologies like Apple’s Continuity bridge the software divide, larger “phablet” devices might complete the loop back to their categorical tablet namesakes. FaceTime Audio is one thing, but Handoff allows iPhone phone calls to be sent and received from any other nearby Apple device. How soon before users begin taking calls predominantly on their iPads?

SMS messaging and traditional calling aren’t being supplanted by technologies like instant messaging and Voice Over IP—instead, the technology industry’s largest companies are finding ways to bring the old and new together in consolidated solutions. iMessage and SMS live side-by-side on iOS devices and Macs. Google Hangouts and SMS are achieving some level of symbiosis on Android. And now, Skype and SMS live happily together not only on Windows mobile products, but also on Windows 10 devices of any size.

The list of things that “only smartphones” can do is shrinking.

For mobile app developers and marketers interested in building apps for their brand, users’ preferences and actual habits are critical to consider. Users expect mobile experiences that bridge devices and offer feature parity across form factors. If mobile developers approach mobile development as its own undertaking, they risk a disconnect with their audiences. Instead, brand marketers and mobile developers need to consider their products as one part of the technology ecosystem, not beholden to any one platform or form factor.

As smartphones continue to get more powerful, and as tablets and desktops continue to adopt their more innovative or distinctive mobile-first technologies, the lines dividing devices of various sizes or form factors will only continue to blur. Going forward, mobile-first approaches may not be enough: embracing the entire technology ecosystem will be the surest way to connect with users wherever they are.