It seems information has been linked that ‘may’ confirm the rumours surrounding the Xbox One and its usage of Windows 8.1 Applications, specifically a pre-order page on the Dell store may be giving this away. If this is the case, this could be a major boost due to the fact that Xbox One (non-game) Applications may also run on Windows 8.1. The information on the Dell page states:
[quotes] Consider the game officially changed. With all your favorite Windows 8 apps able to be run on and synced to your Xbox One, now your phone, desktop, tablet and TV can all give you a unified web and entertainment experience. [/quotes]
This ties in with the virtualised approach that was discussed by Microsoft in regards to the Xbox One hardware, this approach which is essentially a full Windows 8.1 virtual machine (slight tweaks to the UI and a remapped I/O) to run alongside a game engine virtual machine. To dumb it down a little, the virtualised hardware approach means that the Xbox One is in essence a sort of ‘special PC’ in that it has a purpose built gaming Virtual Machine sharing resources with a more traditional Windows Virtual Machine.
For Windows 8.1 this could provide a substantial boost, especially as the Xbox has been a massively strong selling line for the past 10~ years. Allowing Windows 8.1 Apps to run on the Xbox One would mean a wealth of applications becoming available on launch day without the need to ‘woo’ developers to commit and also the added bonus of not having to request developers write their own custom code.
Not only does this have the bonus of making more applications available on the console at launch, but this approach has additional benefits as well. Developers such as Netflix could now add features to just a single source rather than have to transfer updates between branches of their release repositories, this in turn should save cross-platform application providers money as well as developer time.
This unified approach is just another example of Microsoft’s historic focus on putting its developers first and trying to provide them with the best tools to do so. I personally think this is a great idea and can see myself throwing quite a few Apps onto my Xbox One Day One Edition the moment I get it, especially now my desktop is running 8.1!
Sourced from dailytech.com