Microsoft Remote Desktop App Update

Adam Carter here, the technical product manager for VDI. I wanted to give you an update on what’s happening with our cross platform Remote Desktop apps. It was just over a month ago that we released Remote Desktop clients for iOS, Android and Mac OS X, and we’re about to release an update to the app. One of the great things about distributing the apps via app stores is reading the instant feedback we get from the comments on the app in the store, and this update addresses many of the requests we’ve seen. In addition to several bug fixes, we added the following functionality:

iOS

  • Pinch to zoom support in mouse pointer mode
  • Performance improvements
  • iPhone 5 screen resolution fix

Android

  • Pinch to zoom support in mouse pointer mode
  • Performance improvements
  • Improved support for stylus input

Mac OS X

  • Improved full screen support for OS X 10.7 - 10.9
  • Performance improvements

In the month since the apps were released, we’ve seen an astounding 1.5 million downloads of the clients. I wanted to wrap my head around how big that number was, and here’s what I came up with:

1.5 Million downloads across the 3 platforms (iOS, Android, and Mac OS X) equates to 17.6 terabytes of data. If we shipped those updates on floppy disks, our shipping charges would be about the same as shipping 36 full grown elephants.

If you made a stack of just the iOS devices that have downloaded the client, you’d have a stack over 3.4 miles high. If you staggered them to make steps, you’d have a stairway that would get you almost all the way to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro – your iStairs would get you to 18,300 feet, you’d just have the last 1000 feet to climb on your own.

We’ve recorded over 5000 unique Android device types downloading the app.  There’s lots of different sized devices that make that up, but if they averaged the size of a 7” Galaxy Tab, and I traded the devices for their volume in jelly beans, I could completely cover the floor of my apartment, to a depth of 1 foot.

If you’ve downloaded it already, make sure and grab the update to take advantage of the improvements. If you haven’t, what’s keeping you?

Download links:

(Windows Phone users, we haven’t forgotten about you. Your app is coming soon!)