The development platform for Windows Phone 7 Series will be different, Microsoft says--so different in fact that previously built Windows mobile applications will not run on Windows Phone 7 Series.
The development platform for Windows Phone 7 Series will be
different, Microsoft says--so different in fact that previously built
Windows mobile applications will not run on Windows Phone 7 Series.
That was perhaps the key takeaway from
Charlie Kindel's blog
post about Windows Phone 7 Series development delivered on the evening
of March 4. Kindel is the Partner Group Program manager for the Windows
Phone Application Platform & Developer Experience.
Kindel used the term "different" at least nine times -- all in bold
-- in his post to denote the "clean break" the new user and developer
experience will provide with Windows Phone 7 Series. Well, to be sure,
Kindel said .NET developers' skills will move forward with the new
development scheme. And another very key point from Kindel's post is
that Microsoft's
Silverlight and
XNA technology will be integral to Windows Phone 7 Series application development.
Of the overall "difference" of Microsoft's new mobile platform, Kindel wrote:
"For us, the cost of going from good to great is a clean break from
the past. To enable the fantastic user experiences you've seen in the
Windows Phone 7 Series demos so far we've had to break from the past.
To deliver what developers expect in the developer platform we've had
to change how phone apps were written. One result of this is previous
Windows mobile applications will not run on Windows Phone 7 Series."
Silverlight is Microsoft's
Adobe Flash-like
framework for creating rich Web, desktop and mobile applications. XNA
is Microsoft's game development platform consisting of a set of tools
and runtime environment. The XNA Framework is based on the .NET Compact
Framework. And XNA Game Studio is an IDE (integrated development
environment) for game development.
However, Kindel did not focus very much on what developers must do
to build the next generation of Windows mobile applications, or how all
the pieces will work together. For that, he said you will have to
attend Microsoft's MIX10 Web design and development conference in Las
Vegas starting March 15--or at least watch the Webcasts and blogs
from the event.
Said Kindel:
"The expertise and familiarity with our tools is not lost. If you
are a .NET developer today your skills and much of your code will move
forward. If you are Silverlight or XNA developer today you're gonna be
really happy. New developers to the platform will find a cohesive, well
designed API set with super productive tools."
Moreover, Kindel said Microsoft sought out feedback from developers
about what they wanted and came back with three main goals for the
Windows Phone 7 Series platform:
- Enable end users to be able to personalize their phone
experience through a large library of innovative, compelling, games and
applications.
- Enable developers to profit.
- Advance the "3-screen-plus-cloud" vision.
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