New Windows Phones Won't Run CurrentApps

[enyce9]

Wirelessly posted (touch pro 2: Opera/9.80 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/5.0.3521/958; U; en) Presto/2.4.15)

New Windows Phones Won't Run Current
Apps blogs.msdn.com/ckindel/archive/2010/03/04/different-means-better-with-the-new-windows-phone-developer-experience.aspx

[hoihtah]

i suppose this is inevitable. but it is going to seriously cripple the little incentives that the mobile app developers had for winmo 6.

which mobile app company in their right mind is going to develop a new app for something that'll die in less than a year. 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.

that just leaves us current winmo users left hanging with absolutely no hope.

[nydriek]

Originally Posted by hoihtah

i suppose this is inevitable. but it is going to seriously cripple the little incentives that the mobile app developers had for winmo 6.

which mobile app company in their right mind is going to develop a new app for something that'll die in less than a year. 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.

that just leaves us current winmo users left hanging with absolutely no hope.

Well put. I've been thinking about jumping ship to Android myself.

[msh441]

Originally Posted by nydriek

Well put. I've been thinking about jumping ship to Android myself.

HUGE mistake!

I'm a devout WinMo user and have been for more than 15 long years. If I have to spend money/completely start over... based on what I've seen so far, it will likley NOT be with Windows Phone 7 series.

+1 for the competition.

[atomicvocabulary]

I agree that what they are doing is alienating a good percentage of developers with this, so they'll need to pick up the slack BIG time.

These new phones have at least a 1ghz processor, I think that is more than enough to handle running any of the original MS Xbox games on the Windows Phone Series 7 platform along with connecting to current 360 bluetooth controllers to use as game pads. Anything less and I think I'll stick with 6.5 as long as possible and then find my own way from there.

[havox22]

not a big deal for me most my apps/games suck & im ashamed to show them to anybody they only can look at tf3d lol, but yeah its a plus in my book especially if they take the same approach as they did with xbox 360 trying to get as many exclusives from ps3 as they could, they know apps are big & i believe they will have lots of "quality" apps/games for the phones...just think we wont need anymore threads like iphone app = winmo app when in most cases if they have it on winmo then its a inferior app

i understand that some of u have spent alot of money on your apps, i havent so i dont know how u feel, but even if i did im sure i wouldnt be jumping ship if anything id just stick to what i have(tp2) until the updated better version of the app i like is available on wp7, but luckily my fav/most used app is rss hub & im willing to give that up for the xbox & zune features alone....so good luck finding phone happiness no matter what phone it is cuz i have (as long as the battery doesnt suck)

[hceuterpe]

Hello? Knock knock MS???

Ok, everybody redirect their would-be future WinMo phone purchase orders to Android ports for existing WinMo devices!!

[Tim Smith]

Omfg! End of the world everybody panic!

[x10guy]

Microsoft really has to start completely over with their mobile OS... That's why they are taking this route.

Unfortunately they are about 2 years late. After dominating the industry for the better part of the last 10 years, they have become an afterthought. Sure Windows Mobile 7 will make a big splash this year but it will take huge misteps by Apple and Google to get them back on top again, which doesn't seem likely.

[FlatSurfSucks]

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.

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.