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Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7 But Does Anyone Care?

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Re: Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7 But Does Anyone Care?

#21
post #8

I think it's fantastic. As someone who has done a decent bit of iPhone development, I can definitely say that I prefer developing in VS with C# than XCode with Objective-C. It's disheartening that so many bloggers are dismissing this awesome platform simply because Microsoft is "late to the game", yet they forget how successful Android has been. At this point, it looks like Google and Microsoft are fresh and new, whe…

I think the fear for Windows being "late to the game" isn't that MS will have a hard time getting mindshare, but I think they are going to have a hard time getting "developer share". Basically if I'm going to develop my hip new mobile app that's ready to take over the world I'm going to start with Android and iPhone and wait and see what OS I'm going to tackle next, and the way I'm going to figure that out is by sale…

>I think the fear for Windows being "late to the game" isn't that MS will have a hard time getting mindshare, but I think they are going to have a hard time getting "developer share".

Microsoft already have huge developer mindshare. All they have to do is get developers that already use their platforms to use yet another of their platforms.

Re: Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7 But Does Anyone Care?

#22

If you're writing a link-bait article about if anyone cares about a device the day the devices are announced... that means people care. :-)

He even says 'eagerly awaited Windows Phone 7' to describe something that supposedly no one cares about.

Re: Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7 But Does Anyone Care?

#23
I am a big fan of the UI. Snappy and minimalist. I know that Windows Phone has music enabled in the background through the hub api for apps like Pandora and Slacker, etc. All it needs is Copy/Paste (early 2011) and reasonable multitasking capabilities atleast for certain apps. I think the most use of Multi tasking for me on the iPhone right now is to toggle certain settings or to do certain stuff during navigation. I don't really use it beyond that and it's reasonable that most of the multitasking is done this way.

I've also played around with the Google Nexus One and the HTC Incredible. While they're great phones in their own right, the touch screen experience leaves a lot to be desired (atleast on those units) in terms of response time and accuracy + the camera on nexus one is nowhere near the iphone 3GS, forget iPhone 4.

Disclaimer: I have been using the iPhone since the past 3 years and currently on the iPhone 4. I think it's time that I tried a new platform because I'm simply bored of how the phone looks and how it operates (launch an app, exit an app, etc. for everything). I like the way multitasking is implemented and how well the camera performs. I've always had the craving for a hardware keyboard and it seems like the new Dell phone with WP7 is a good replacement for my phone, probably early next year.

Re: Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7 But Does Anyone Care?

#24
post #8

I think it's fantastic. As someone who has done a decent bit of iPhone development, I can definitely say that I prefer developing in VS with C# than XCode with Objective-C. It's disheartening that so many bloggers are dismissing this awesome platform simply because Microsoft is "late to the game", yet they forget how successful Android has been. At this point, it looks like Google and Microsoft are fresh and new, whe…

I think the fear for Windows being "late to the game" isn't that MS will have a hard time getting mindshare, but I think they are going to have a hard time getting "developer share". Basically if I'm going to develop my hip new mobile app that's ready to take over the world I'm going to start with Android and iPhone and wait and see what OS I'm going to tackle next, and the way I'm going to figure that out is by sale…

The real question is, is this the next Xbox, or is it the next Silverlight?

Re: Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7 But Does Anyone Care?

#26

I hope it succeeds at least enough to give Apple some competition in development tools.

Apple doesn't need competition to motivate them. They've shown that by reinventing the iPod every year even though there's no competition to speak of. If anything, Apple is obsessive about innovating.

There's a major new version of the dev environment underway, Xcode 4, which developers can already try for themselves: http://developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/whats-new.html

Re: Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7 But Does Anyone Care?

#27
I've heard WP7 has no compatibility whatsoever (so it's unable to run even WM5/6 apps)? If that's true — am I understanding properly that MS is introducing almost completely empty platform, which requires software to be written yet?

I don't know whenever they will succeed or not, but it seems to be a hard task to enter the market when all rivals already have quite strong positions (including lots of software).

Re: Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7 But Does Anyone Care?

#28
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the fear for Windows being "late to the game" isn't that MS will have a hard time getting mindshare, but I think they are going to have a hard time getting "developer share". Basically if I'm going to develop my hip new mobile app that's ready to take over the world I'm going to start with Android and iPhone and wait and see what OS I'm going to tackle next, and the way I'm going to figure that out is by sale…

>I think the fear for Windows being "late to the game" isn't that MS will have a hard time getting mindshare, but I think they are going to have a hard time getting "developer share". Microsoft already have huge developer mindshare. All they have to do is get developers that already use their platforms to use yet another of their platforms.

This is especially true since you develop for WP7 on proven and well-known technologies (.Net-ish, C#, XNA). A great many developers are already intimately familiar with these and will have little or no barrier of entry with WP7.

Re: Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7 But Does Anyone Care?

#29
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the fear for Windows being "late to the game" isn't that MS will have a hard time getting mindshare, but I think they are going to have a hard time getting "developer share". Basically if I'm going to develop my hip new mobile app that's ready to take over the world I'm going to start with Android and iPhone and wait and see what OS I'm going to tackle next, and the way I'm going to figure that out is by sale…

The real question is, is this the next Xbox, or is it the next Silverlight?

They're both successful projects - Silverlight's adoption is still increasing. I'm not sure what your point is?

Re: Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7 But Does Anyone Care?

#30
post #16
post #5

Tons of people prefer the Microsoft environment. Neither Google nor Apple have offered many of these people what they want in a dev environment. Apple's required an odd language up until very recently, and even the C# language you can write to doesn't do many of the things they're used to doing C# in. Android's development resources are capable, but Eclipse is a far cry from Visual Studio... I assume tons of people w…

The tools don't matter, it might be nice, but even though "tons of people prefer the Microsoft environment" I can't recall the last time they produced a product having superior user experience thanks to those tools. I can't name a single website/webapp/desktop app that I enjoy using on a daily base made with visual studio. I know a lot of the game companies use visual studio (c++) to produce parts of their games, but…

Zune desktop client? Media Center? Windows Live Writer? Camtasia? Visual Studio?
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