Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 May have Same Code Base

Well this would be interesting: Slashgear reports that Microsoft may use the same code for its mobile phones as it does for its desktop operating system. Considering that Windows 8 runs HTML5 apps, this could drastically shake up the mobile computing space.

A Tale of a Dozen Apps

Desktop apps don’t work on mobile phones. Apple’s app store helped reinforce this, encouraging developers to make small, granular apps that could run on the weak original device. But as mobile device specifications approach their laptop and desktop cousins, the only real differentiate between a desktop app and a mobile app is the language it is written in and the screen size. Well, and the type of CPU used, but Windows 8 will run on ARM, too.

Microsoft, by adopting the open, easy to code for standards of HTML5, is encouraging app design that is portable. And by running the same code between both the mobile device and the desktop, they are ensuring that code will work on both. Really, all you will need to do is change the user interface.

A Move towards the Web

You might notice that I mentioned Windows 8 apps being written in HTML5 rather than C or C++. It’s an interesting trend that both Google and Microsoft are pursuing in their own way. Microsoft is fully adopting web standards for app creation. Google, who did that a while back, is coming at the problem from a different angle, instead enabling you to run native code in the web browser.

The goals of both approaches is to make the operating system web-centric and apps portable wherever. I think the move is based on the realization that the app ecosystem we currently have isn’t sustainable. The idea of highly granular pieces of code you run on your mobile device will die out as the internet becomes more ubiquitous and you expect things to run together more seamlessly.

If the rumor is true, and the two platforms will share code, then Microsoft is finally making a step in the right direction.