The One Sided Relationship of Microsoft with Google
Before Twitter was taken over by llamas and dresses of different colors, there was a flutter of a different type. It started with Google’s purchase of SoftCard, a mobile payment solution, and the subsequent dropping of Windows Phone support just two days after the acquisition. The result means that Microsoft and Windows Phone have no mobile payment app or system available in the short term (rumor has it that Microsoft is coming out with something with Windows 10 for Phones) so we loyal users will need to continue to whip out the plastic to make a purchase and not our shiny Lumia’s.
The undertone of the move however was far more ominous than just Google pulling support for one Windows Phone solution. Google has never supported Windows Phone and scarcely Windows on the desktop. In fact if you search the Windows Store you will find exactly one app from Google for Windows 8.1. That one app is Google Search. There is no Gmail app. No Google+ app. Not even YouTube. Nothing. Meanwhile, in the Google Play store, if you do a search for Microsoft you will find 64 apps they have developed for Android. Sixty Four! To make it more challenging, many of these apps are better on Android than they are on Windows Phone. I expect that to change in Windows 10 for Phones but today, it is what it is.
If you look in the Windows Phone Store for Google apps you will find exactly one app as well, Google Search. So really, the comparisons are not even a comparison. It’s one sided. But it gets worse and it is quite clear that Google wants nothing to do with Microsoft. Need proof? Go look at iTunes.
