Where are the CAD apps for Windows phones?

A reader writes from South America:

In the last upFront.eZine newsletter, you have written about CAD apps, “Running CAD on Small Screens.” I am using an HTC Windows Phone 8X, which I really like, but I cant find any apps for mobile CAD purposes. Which is for me really BAD! Do you know of CAD apps running on Windows phones?

-- J.J.

That's right: no CAD vendor supports Windows 8 Phone, because its marketshare is too small (under 4% and shrinking) to assign programming resources. 

In recent years, CAD vendors were forced to switch from programming for just one -- or at most two -- operating systems (Windows and/or OS X) to many: Windows, OS X (with OS X undergoing major changes under the hood), maybe Linux, iOS, Android, and Web browsers (HTML5).

Thus, there is little enthusiasm writing for yet another OS. Note that owners of Windows 8 RT and RIM tablets have the same problem you are experiencing.

There's only going to be CAD apps for Windows 8 Mobile/RT from two sources:

• Microsoft, should they fund the development costs of a CAD vendor (as they have done in other markets). Problem: in this day, it is more important for OS makers that hardware be seen running productivity-sapping apps like Angry Birds than world-changing apps like CAD.

• A tiny self-funded upstart sees an opportunity for having the only CAD package on mobile Widows. Problem: having 100% marketshare of a tiny market is no better than a tiny marketshare of a huge market (like Android or iOS).

Now, this Microsoft-being-ignored stance is a switch from a decade ago, when CAD applications for Windows CE (the name of the portable OS at the time) were overtaking PalmOS (which was more popular but beginning to stagnate). Windows CE (renamed Windows Mobile) was just starting to like the feeling of being the king of the mobile hill when Apple shipped the first iPhone, and ever since it's been downhill for Microsoft (and Palm and RIM).

I recall when Windows for Pen Computing came out in the 1990s, and Microsoft boasting how popular it was. (It wasn't.) A third-party developer later told me that Microsoft strong-armed him and other developers: to get access to a new release of desktop Windows, developers had to take on Windows for Pen Computing.

 

Comments

[Kevin E.]

Oh Ahab, are you hunting your white whale again?

Windows Phone's fate will be tied to the fate of Windows 8. Windows Phone now runs on the Windows RT kernel. While it isn't exactly the same, from what I understand if you are going to make a WinRT app, it wouldn't be much more work to make a Windows Phone app or vice versa.

I think it is too early to tell if this will succeed or fail, but I can see you are loving their position right now.

[Ralph Grabowski]

>I understand if you are going to make a WinRT app,
>it wouldn't be much more work to make a Windows
>Phone app or vice versa.

This is what Windoze fanz keep telling me, but I ain't seeing it. Autodesk was mum on Windows 8 at AU, Bentley was pretty mum on it at BE, and I expect SolidWorks to mimic the others at SWW.

There is no "there" there.

[Kevin E.]

I'd like to make a correction. That should read Windows NT kernel, not RT.

[Kevin E.]

So you don't believe that Autodesk will support Windows 8? Did the version of Inventor that was released just before Windows 7 list support for Windows 7? Did it a short time afterwards?

I also find it ironic that a Linux fan is taking shots at the Windows Phone marketshare.......

[Ralph Grabowski]

> I can see you are loving their position right now.

Yum, yum.... Microsoft's plunge into consumer oblivion makes many of my post-Christmas blues go away.

[RobiNZ]

The landscape is shifting but lets say Windows (RT/Desktop/Mobile) ends up with say 30% of the Tablet/PC/Phone mix.

Then consider RT/Metro/Modern UI is Windows and the desktop is merely supremely powerful legacy app for those old apps.

That is what Windows 8 is heading for and Desktop will be there, like DOS Command window now, but hardly ever used?

Worth developing for?

[led lampen]

Very useful post!
Thank you.

[E.S AKSHAY]

Very good thanks for sharing with us & keep sharing with us.................................

[Kartcastle Website]

Windows Phone now runs on the Windows RT kernel. While it isn't exactly the same, from what I understand if you are going to make a WinRT app, it wouldn't be much more work to make a Windows Phone apps................................