thomasdohmke

Hm, good question. Depends how much the person knows about technology. I guess I would say something like: It's a lot of computers in a lot of factory buildings around the world, where companies can run their web pages and web apps. Those computers are owned and maintained by a company like Microsoft, which offers all kinds of services in addition to just the hardware.

Technology: AI/AR/VR is very exciting. On a day-to-day level, we do a lot of stuff in Node.js, React, React Native, and all kinds of container technology like Docker.

Haha, I had to answer this question so many times over the years. :D

Our product started as an open-source project named "Hockey" which allowed you to install iOS beta apps on your iPhone (that's all it did, no crash reporting, no Android, etc). Apple calls this installation process ad-hoc distribution. The name "Hockey" was a word play on the Hoc in ad-hoc distribution and the word key. When we launched the HockeyApp in spring 2011, the open-source project had already gained traction in the community, so we kept the name and added App at the end.

Would I do it again? Maybe. Some people were and are confused as it has nothing to do with the sport, but then it enabled us to do all kinds of cute things, for example Our Mac app has a Zamboni icon and in 2015 we were sending out real pucks to product fans (https://www.hockeyapp.net/blog/2015/11/24/score-a-free-puck.html), and once you remember the name, it's pretty unique.

It is supported in HockeyApp and Mobile Center, and we have no plans to not support it. If you are asking how long the Windows Group will support it as an OS or launch new devices, then I don't honestly know.

Your description is fine if the person knows what a server is and how it is different from their computer at home. It really depends on the technical or non-technical background and how much you want to differentiate the web from the cloud.

My team & I are still working on HockeyApp and the next generation of it: Visual Studio Mobile Center - http://aka.ms/mobilecenter. We also own Xamarin Test Cloud, Xamarin Insights, Azure Notification Hubs, Azure Mobile Engagement, and CodePush (which is very cool if you do React Native stuff). All of those will become part of Mobile Center.