“It’s a big day for Microsoft. The company had to step up and show the world that that innovation is still alive at Microsoft. The company was compelled to show it has both the talent and the fortitude to extend its dominant desktop and .NET platform and services effectively, cleanly and seamlessly to consumers and enterprise mobile. I have to admit I was skeptical, but my initial impressions are positive about what I’ve seen so far.”
Forbes magazine was one of the many financial firms covering the information presented by Microsoft today with regards to Windows Phone 7. From their point of view, Microsoft mostly delivered what they speculated were key items to get them back in the game. The user interface and seamless consumer experience really impressed them. However, they seemed very critical of the business capabilities of the phone. Specifically they would have liked to see a mobile cloud solution for small businesses, better IT support, and more developer incentives. Hit the link for the full analysis and leave your comments with your own thoughts on the announcements.
In a recent blog post, Mary Jo Foley talks about Microsoft’s plans for Windows Phone developer environments, and concludes that we’re looking at a mix of Silverlight and .Net, with Visual Studio 10 tying it all together.
Mary Jo quotes her anonymous Microsoft insider as saying:
“The dev platform is Silverlight 3, plus elements of 4, using Blend and a Visual Studio add-in. The kicker is that while it is XAML-like, it is not pure XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language). This is actually OK, as it keeps the footprint nice and small.
“In theory you can make an entire app inside of Blend, but I think you will need Visual Studio to hook it all together in C#. In the war vs. Apple for apps, every .NET developer just became a Phone developer.”
This is a clever strategy. I haven’t touched a programming language in ages, and even I can pump something out in Visual Studio. In Microsoft’s race for apps (100K in Apple’s store vs. 1,245 in the Marketplace), this could be a key advantage for Microsoft.
Backwards compatibility
Microsoft has also yet to announce whether Windows Phone 7 Series will support apps written for 6.x. Clearly some UI changes will be necessary, but will the code run? Will there be some kind of compatibility mode? Expect to hear more about this at Mix 10.
by dave on September 30th, 2009 /
Category: News
I just saw this neat, free GPS-based spedometer for Windows Mobile devices over at XDA. The developer has tested this on an HTC Touch HD and says it works well in portrait or landscape, and it features day and night modes.
I’m giving it a try this weekend, I’m going to see how fast I can kayak down the Rideau Canal! If you’d like to give it a while, it is available for download for free from XDA. You’ll need to get the .Net framework too, if you don’t already have it installed.
Are you a developer looking forward to the upcoming Windows Mobile marketplace? Or maybe you’re looking to jump on the .NET development bandwagon. (Whoa, I’m trying to imagine what that bandwagon would look like…)
These Top 8 websites are everything that a Microsoft .NET developer needs!
Top 8: Websites for Microsoft .NET developers
