Microsoft Will Save Windows Phone

Microsoft has released a statement today saying that it plans on acquiring the mobile app development startup Xamarin for an undisclosed sum. The reason behind Microsoft aquiring Xamarin is so that Microsoft would have a tool for building mobile apps that can work across iOS, Android, and Windows phones. Xamarin, which has 15,000 customers, including large brand names like Coca-Cola and JetBlue, allows developers to code in a single programming language while designing an app to look native to each platform. Xamarin also offers a way for developers to test those apps using thousands of cloud-hosted devices.

"We have had a longstanding relationship with Xamarin," writes Scott Guthrie, Microsoft's executive vice president of the company's cloud and enterprise group, in a blog post. "With today’s acquisition announcement we will be taking this work much further to make our world class developer tools and services even better with deeper integration and seamless mobile app dev experiences."

Microsoft has spent the better part of the last two years establishing itself on mobile as a maker of apps for competitors' platforms. The goal is to create users of Windows and Office software on every device out there — including iPhones, iPads, and Android phones — as a way to drive subscriptions to its cloud-based products and rope more people into Microsoft's ecosystem. At last year's Microsoft Build conference, the company announced an ambitious initiative to help developers port iOS and Android apps to Windows 10. While that effort, code named Project Astoria, hasn't fully panned out quite yet, the acquisition of Xamarin should help Microsoft offer similar development tools for making cross-platform apps from the start. This way, Microsoft might finally get Android and iOS apps on their own failing Windows Phone platform, and rapidly boost their mobile market share, something that has been tough for them due to their rather small app store.

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