Quote:
Originally Posted by hoihtah
and to start developing for 7? a platform still being developed... a platform that no one knows how it would fare against android and iphone os? why not just go develop for either of those two proven platform instead? sigh.
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1. Although it's unproven, everything I've seen looks awesome and people who've gotten to see it in person pretty much unanimously like it a lot
2. It's still early. We'll know/see much more before it releases. Plenty of time to get stuff written and in the marketplace.
3. Silverlight & XNA are awesome. Fast, easy, etc. XNA can be developed for with entirely free tools. Silverlight sorta needs Expression Blend at this point (VS2010 does allow some UI design) but I have a feeling at MIX they'll announce an "Expression Blend Express" version that will be free.
4. There will be templates and themes provided to kickstart Silverlight UI design/development. I believe iPhone sorta does this (although in a bit different manner) but Android leaves devs to figure it out themselves resulting in a disparate experience for users.
5. Lots of devs are already familiar with C#, XNA, and Silverlight. No need to run out and buy a Mac and learn Apple's proprietary language and tools. Yea, you could say that C# and VS/Blend are proprietary but there's a much larger user/install base out there for those tools and applications written with them (windows). Lots of good XNA games out there already and that community of indie game devs is rather impressive.
6. "First!" Why compete with existing apps when you can be have the first ____ app and reap the rewards? Existing app developers for iPhone and Android will likely build WP7 versions to protect their "market" and leverage what they've already done (code will be different but ideas the same) but where they don't (and even where they do) newcomers will be looking to cash in on the gold rush.
7. It's Microsoft. Don't underestimate their ability to persuade the heavy hitters to come on board. They've got a lot of money. WP7 will be a success come hell or high water.
8. Did I mention it's easy? If there's one thing Microsoft has traditionally excelled at (not so much for WinMo though) is development tools and APIs. Why is Windows such a success? They got developers on board with great tools and APIs. Visual Studio is the best IDE hands down.
Barring the actual OS sucking horribly (which doesn't look to be the case at all) there will be tons of really high quality apps for WP7. The only real competitor for developers/apps is iPhone. The Android development experience leaves a lot to desire and
it's only getting worse. And Apple with it's absurd restrictions is quickly alienating a lot of developers. Yes, WP7 Marketplace will be somewhat restricted but I can't see it being anywhere near as bad as Apple is with the iPhone App store.