Microsoft’s Mobile Apps Win Big on Phone and Tablet, But Fall Short on the Desktop

For over two weeks now, I’ve secretly made a major change to my daily workflow and have been using as many Microsoft mobile apps on PC, tablet, and smartphone as possible. And my relative levels of success speak volumes, I think, to the state of Microsoft’s mobile efforts here in mid-2016.

First, I do want to get one thing out of the way. I know that many of you will read the preceding paragraph and think something along the lines of, “Shocker: A Microsoft blogger is using Microsoft apps and services.” And truth be told, I did consider a tongue-in-cheek clickbaity-type headline for that very reason. But I don’t want to diminish the message here with humor, as I think this is in fact a very important topic.

In any event, I feel strongly that everyone should at least occasionally test alternatives to the apps and services they use regularly. Whether you’re just a typical user, a personal technology enthusiast, or a reviewer—like Brad Sams, who recently underwent his own experiment using Microsoft Edge—it’s important not to confuse familiarity with better efficiency and productivity. Personally, I’ve always gravitated to what works best. And if that means using a Google or Apple product or service, or some third party solution, so be it.

For long-time Microsoft fans, of course, this kind of behavior is sometimes seen as controversial. Some simply can’t bear the thought of using an Apple device or a Google service, with justifications ranging from the emotional (“I just hate them so much”) to the moral (“Google violates my privacy”) to the pragmatic (“This other thing simply works better”).

And that’s fine. But even if your point was to argue that Microsoft’s solutions are superior, wouldn’t you need to actually experience the alternatives in order to be proven correct? And wouldn’t you need to keep reevaluating those alternatives as they improve? I mean, what happens when you wake up one day and Apple actually made the iPad Pro a viable personal computing platform?

OK, that’s crazy talk and, yes, I just violated my own rule about undercutting this message with humor. That didn’t take long, sorry.

Anyway, you don’t have to spend your life testing apps and services, that’s what tech reviewers are for. Brad and I do this, and of course so do many others. As Jerry Pournelle, who I consider the original blogger, once pointed out: I make these mistakes so you don’t have to.

Not that using Microsoft’s mobile apps is a mistake, per se. In testing these apps anew—by really using them in place of the apps and services I’d normally use—for the past few weeks, I’ve come to better understand how hard it is for Microsoft to please its very diverse user base, especially when it tries to do so across such a weird variety of device form factors. So whether its Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps running on Windows 10 PCs, tablets, or phones, or mobile apps running on Android or iOS devices, Microsoft has achieved varying degrees of success. But there’s plenty of room for improvement.

Let’s consider UWP first. The promise here is great: A single apps platform that works across PCs, tablets, (Windows) phones, Xbox One, and other weird devices like IoT, HoloLens, and SurfaceHub. The reality, however, is mixed. And the reason is easy enough to discern: UWP is a mobile apps platform. And mobile apps make the most sense with mobile platforms, and for simpler, mostly entertainment-based scenarios. For true productivity—i.e. why I use a PC in the first place—UWP isn’t quite there yet.

Based on my recent experiences, I can make the following generalizations. UWP works absolutely fine for entertainment apps—like Groove and Movies & TV—as you’d expect, and regardless of device type. It also seems to work fine for what I’ll call “light productivity” apps—Mail, Calendar—e.g. the types of tasks most could successfully complete on a smartphone or tablet too. But where it starts to fall apart is on traditional PC productivity tasks, like those the Office Mobile apps try to solve, where the density of commands simply doesn’t approach what’s available in equivalent desktop/Win32 solutions. That is, once your needs reach a certain level, UWP just doesn’t cut it. I’ve never found a UWP word/text processor or image editor that meets my needs, for example, let alone any more complex apps.

In Microsoft’s defense, this app platform has improved immeasurably since it debuted as Metro in Windows 8. Back then, Microsoft was single-mindedly pushing “touch first” UIs with touch-friendly hit targets, and with predictable results: Toolbar buttons were big and round—literally fingertip-shaped—and the apps looked like something Gerber or Playskool would have come up with. These apps were insulting to PC users, frankly.

That said, it’s important to remember that mobile apps like those in the UWP ecosystem are designed for the masses, and not for the technical elite. The desktop versions of the Office applications, for example, are powerful, but they’re also complex, arguably too complex in some ways for average users. As are apps like Photoshop, Visual Studio, and even iTunes. They’re from different eras and serve very specific audiences and needs.

But as interesting, perhaps, is the fact that Microsoft’s mobile apps on other platforms are sometimes much better than what it offers on Windows.

Consider Outlook Mobile for Android and iPhone, which, yes, began life outside of Microsoft. This app isn’t just better than the equivalent UWP apps (Outlook Mail, Calendar and People for Windows 10). It’s awesome. It also breaks past the mobile app norm—a UNIX-like focus on a single or limited range of tasks—and presents an experience that is so dense, rich, and functional that it very closely mimics its desktop Outlook cousin.

Here’s what I mean. On mobile, you typically see separate apps for email, calendar/tasks, and contacts. That’s why Microsoft makes separate Outlook Mail, Calendar and People apps for Windows 10. But Outlook Mobile for Android and iPhone mimics Outlook for the Windows desktop, offering all of that functionality in one app. Theoretically, this shouldn’t work, given the density of the commands and the small screen size. But it all makes sense, and Outlook Mobile works amazingly well. I highly recommend it.

So Outlook Mobile for Android and iPhone provides a road map for UWP productivity apps, I think, a next step that Microsoft can take to make this evolving platform more suitable for apps that let you get real work done. Today, Windows 10’s Mail and Calendar apps areusable, and I was surprised, a bit, to discover that Brad Sams, Mary Jo Foley and even Rafael Rivera all rely on these apps every day. But Outlook Mobile for Android and iPhone is superior. And I can’t wait until those apps trigger a change on Windows 10.

On a side note, it’s somewhat telling that the most exciting UWP news this year, arguably, is the arrival of Microsoft’s Desktop App Converter, previously code named Project Centennial: This utility converts Win32 desktop application installers into UWP app packages that can be deployed on Windows 10 alongside “real” UWP apps, and lets the developer then add UWP features like Live Tiles, notifications, Cortana and more to the packaged app.

The Desktop App Converter is a great idea, and it will lead to some classic desktop applications appearing in the Windows Store, which is overdue. But I think we all realize that the most important Win32 desktop applications—Adobe Photoshop, Apple iTunes, Google Chrome, and so on—will never be distributed like this. So the Desktop App Converter is really about moving enterprises and their line of business (LOB) apps to UWP, allowing them to migrate their PCs to Windows 10. So more generally, the Desktop App Converter is just another way of improving the “productive density” of UWP, if you will. Of moving this platform past the Gerber/Playskool days of the past and into a future that brings the function of Win32 with none of the reliability and security issues.

Put simply, UWP is one of those things that makes sense conceptually, but its applicability or viability in the real world varies according to what it is you’re trying to do. Simpler users with simpler needs should have no problems using UWP apps on any Windows 10-based platform, and Microsoft’s mobile apps are generally well-constructed on other mobile platforms too.

But for those who view the PC as a productivity workstation, as I do, these mobile platforms just don’t cut it. And that’s not just on Windows: Those recent iPad Pro commercials aren’t just funny, they’re kind of sad. Because in typical Apple fashion, what they’re selling is the future, not the present. That is, the iPad Pro is not a PC right now because it too cannot meet the productivity needs for those of us who need to get real work done. It’s a poseur, and an expensive one at that. Microsoft is correct to mock them for this fakery, because only the PC market offers solutions that glide evenly between the mobile and desktop PC worlds. A Surface can run real Office. The iPad Pro gets the toy version.

Ultimately, I’m not sure where this experiment will take me. I’m back to using real Office applications, not the mobile apps. I think I can stick with Mail and Calendar on Windows 10, and Groove works great. Edge … oh, Edge. You’re such a frustration. That one will require the patience of Job, and why Microsoft doesn’t simply just update that app regularly is unclear. I’m not sure if I have it in me.

But I’ll keep trying. That is, after all, what I do.