[CharlesW]

This seems…great?

Why did Microsoft create this? Specifically, I'm not interested in the "because we love developers" story, I'm interested in the "this is strategic for Microsoft now and for the next decade because" story.

[jjeaff]

Why did they create it? It's $40 - $99 a month for premium usage and has the potential to make tying in with other MS products like azure, easier. Seems like plenty of reason to me.

[keithba]

The team is extremely passionate about creating developer productivity tools. App Center's creators include the founders of HockeyApp, Xamarin Test Cloud, and CodePush. This is something we were all iterating towards individually, and when we met up at Microsoft, we realized we now had the team and ability to make it happen.

Microsoft is very serious about creating amazing developer tool across any app, platform, and language for a variety of reasons. Making Azure the most productive place to power your app is part of it, of course. But, in the long run, the easier we make development, the more the world benefits.

[orand]

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense to see this from the background of HockeyApp, Xamarin Test Cloud, and CodePush coming together. Ignore the non-answer guy, this is a totally sufficient answer in my opinion.

[jksmith]

You need golang on that toolchain. It is arguably the language of the cloud at this point.

[lardo]

What a lovely nonanswer.

[tkjef]

Seems like it's to get more people on Azure. Doesn't look like it works with AWS or GCP.

[ggg9990]

It's a paid service that integrates with other paid Azure services. It's strategic for Microsoft because you give them money.

[PascLeRasc]

Yes, it's important to look at all of Microsoft's new products through the "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" lens.