Windows 10: Microsoft looks set to stall plans for Android integration

MICROSOFT HAS GONE QUIET on its plans for Android app integration with Windows 10.
The company heralded the arrival of the Android app runtime at the Build developer conference earlier this year, as well as iOS through a bridge known as Project Astoria.
However, it appears that the troubled Windows 10 Mobile could be about to launch with Astoria nowhere in sight. Developers are simply being given no information. There's been no cancellation as such, and the only comment has been that “the Android app porting is not going as planned”.
Project Islandwood, the iOS equivalent, has already proved its chops with the inclusion of Candy Crush Saga in Windows 10, which is a direct port of the iPhone edition. Meanwhile, Astoria has become unwieldy in resources without actually producing results.
The problem is the rather loud song and dance about the availability of Android apps in Windows 10 Mobile. We've already been drumming our fingers at the arrival of the mobile portion of the operating system which has suffered unspecified internal struggles, of which this is more than likely one.
Whether it was not working or not working very well is academic. Either way, Windows 10 Mobile is something of a final dice roll as far as mobile goes, so presenting a half-arsed feature is not in the script.
Defenders point out that the mobile edition was never 'late' as a release date was never specified, but the fact remains that Windows 10 would ideally all have been released together on 29 July, and the lack of commitment to a release up to now has been backed with a deafening silence.
Meanwhile, Project Astoria's aim was to allow .apk files, the standard format for an Android app, to run on a Windows machine. Given that Google is already in a fight with Oracle over the rights to large portions of its runtime, thanks to a judge deciding that APIs have copyright even when they're open source, it could be that Microsoft has realised that running Android apps could get expensive.
If that's the case, a very public climb-down over a promised function in the OS is the least of its worries. The project isn't officially scrapped, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast.