Microsoft embraces Android, iPhone apps in Nadella's riskiest move yet

Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella on Wednesday unveiled some of his riskiest moves yet as he tries to win back software developers to write more apps for the Windows operating system.

In a development that might have seemed impossible only a few years ago, Microsoft announced new tools to help developers easily transfer apps to run on Windows Phones that were originally written for Google (GOOGL) Android phones or Apple (AAPL) iPhones. And it created software for writing apps using its cloud service, Azure, and Windows for developers who work on computers running Apple or Linux operating systems.

“We want to make sure we build bridges for you,” Nadella said during a keynote address at the company's annual developer conference in San Francisco.

Windows Phone remains mired at the margins of the smartphone market with a share of about 3%, largely due to the lack of new and popular apps. If Nadella's new efforts succeed and help close the "app gap," more people may choose to use Windows phones and other Windows devices, which could in turn attract more developers as well.

But the risk is that developers will see even less reason to pay attention to Windows software and write apps that take advantage of its unique features. An app written with an iPhone user in mind and ported to Windows likely will still work best on the iPhone.

One of Microsoft's most valuable assets in the desktop PC era was the huge number of developers focused on Windows. But now most cutting-edge software is written for Apple and Google's mobile operating systems.

The process for Android and iPhone developers to bring their programs to Windows will be slightly different, because of differences in those software platforms. For Android apps, Microsoft will include a feature in Windows to allow Android apps to function without much additional effort. For iPhone apps, however, Microsoft wrote a translation program developers will have to use to convert apps to a version that will run on the iPhone.

Still, there's no guarantee that converting apps from another platform will attract more users, analyst Jan Dawson noted in a blog post. "Porting apps often results in a lowest common denominator approach, in which the very people most likely to be attracted to a lower-cost porting method are those least likely to be willing to put the time and effort into making the experience really shine on each platform," Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, wrote after the keynote.

At the developer conference, the company also demonstrated features of its forthcoming Windows 10 upgrade and a new web browser that will replace Internet Explorer. The new browser will be called Microsoft Edge and will be tightly integrated with the company's digital personal assistant, Cortana.

Nadella has been shaking up Microsoft's former Windows-centric strategy since taking over as CEO in February 2014. Some of his prior moves include offering versions of Microsoft's popular Office software for Android and Apple phones, as well as pitching Azure cloud services to app developers on those platforms.

But the company remains highly dependent on the revenue and profits flowing from its fading Windows PC computer franchise.