With the re-org dust now starting to settle and as we wait to hear from Microsoft about how they are going to change the path-ahead for Windows, we are starting to see some movement internally that can help us understand how individual teams are being impacted.

I have heard from multiple sources that Microsoft is winding down app development of several of the included applications that ship with Windows 10 like stocks and weather. For the employees who were working on these applications, Microsoft is offering them positions on the Edge team.

In addition to app developers, there may be others who are being pushed towards the Edge platform and they are likely coming from RS5 enhancements that have now been canceled. Microsoft will continue to prioritize enterprise features over those of consumer going forward and this is one small step that they have taken to align with this agenda.

This not all bad news if you look at what recently happened with Office 365 business features being brought to the consumer SKUs, there is value in this approach for everyone.

What I don’t know is if this will impact the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 10, those two apps have a higher priority because of their usage at this time. That being said, I’m still hoping we see Microsoft go all-in on PWAs and create an Outlook.com experience so that the web and desktop have the same UI and functionality.

Tagged with Edge, Windows 10