Let’s face it, if you’re big on your games then you’re more than likely part of the Xbox camp and no, this isn’t starting a flame war with you PlayStation Players out there. It’s just that Xbox is the bigger platform and has more players on it so, to see it only making it’s way to Android in some way – towards the end of the console’s long life – is a little strange. Sony has a better presence on Android than Microsoft right now and of course, we all know why that is but, if Microsoft think that they’ve done enough to appease Android owners well, they’re sorely mistaken. It took us until this year to get any form of official app to connect our Android devices to the Xbox Live network and it’s not all that good an app. With the announcement of SmartGlass from Microsoft earlier on in the year it looked there was hope for a speedier arrival on Android after all, Microsoft know that for their new project to be successful they need all the numbers they can get and Android has far more users than Windows Phone does.
The new project from Microsoft that will allow you to interact with your Xbox and deliver specialised content for certain games or TV Shows is coming to other platforms besides their own Windows Phone. It’s certainly something to behold, the ability to connect two devices together is something we’ve been wanting for quite some time now and if we could really get our Android smartphones and tablets talking to the Xbox I think we’d all be pretty happy. There’s a lot to love about the new initiative as well, with the ability to control the upcoming Internet Explorer for Windows as well as added features for games and the ability to swap playback of movies between the two devices.
This sounds brilliant but, as you guessed it, Microsoft will be dragging their feet bringing this to Android and it won’t be arriving until early 2013 which sounds pretty stupid if you were to ask me. Let’s face it Microsoft, nobody is going to be buying a Windows 8 or a Windows Phone 8 device this holiday JUST for SmartGlass functionality. There’s just no way gamers are that crazy but, I’m sure many of them will appreciate the added features you’re bringing but, you really ought to be taking better care of your users, no matter what platform they’re on, no matter how busy you are.