Wired on Microsoft’s Challenge for Windows Phone 7: Wooing Developers
Wanted to pass along a realistic take from Brian X Chen of Wired on both the challenges and opportunity Microsoft has with wooing developers to support the Windows Phone 7 Series. On the pessimistic side, we have some folks who wrote off Windows Mobile years ago:
Kai Yu, CEO of BeeJive, was pessimistic. He said his independent company, which makes apps for the iPhone and BlackBerry, wrote off Windows Mobile years ago because of “incomplete, half-assed” developer tools and a lack of support from Microsoft, and he doesn’t see those problems changing with a new operating system.
And while I wasn’t developer on Windows Mobile back in the day, I can say the overall quality of earlier phones using Microsoft’s phone OS was definitely lacking IMO. I’ve never been shy about the fact that I bought an iPhone the day it came out. With it, Apple took a huge step forward around creating a user-focused experience that paved the way for a “new” type of consumer: real people, living real lives.
On the positive side, I loved this quote from Jim Scheinman, COO of Pageonce:
“My speculation is that Microsoft has some incredible platforms they can tie all together with the new mobile platform,” Scheinman said. “If one developer can write across all the other platforms, that would be easier for us and all the developers…. If you want to attract hundreds of thousands of developers, it would behoove Microsoft to try to make that happen. That would be a very, very exciting opportunity for all of us.”
We’re not talking about details around our development platform until MIX10 in March. But I’ll highlight a recent quote from our Mobile Group chief Andy Lees from a recent conference call:
“You’re also right to point out that a marketplace is included, and the marketplace will work for applications but also for games, so the gaming marketplace for the first time will utilize Xbox Live, and that enables you to create multiplayer, multiscreen games, and the marketplace will facilitate that, so that it will actually work across screens.”
The opportunity is ours to lose in enabling developers to quickly and easily create applications and experiences (and games!) across multiple screens and devices. As Wired points out, we have a lot of work ahead of us… but I can also say that I think we’ve lined up all the dots such that when we actually draw the line, people will be very excited. If you have any interest at all in developing for Windows Phone 7, definitely hit MIX10. I’ll be there, and I’d love to chat with you! And yes, I am planning to replace my iPhone with a Windows Phone 7. Sorry Steve; it’s been a great ride, but I can’t resist being connected to my LIVE community and games… and I can hardly wait to see what the next year brings!
Related posts:
- How Do I Use Xbox LIVE APIs on Windows Phone?
- Windows Phone 7 UI Design and Interaction Guide Updated
- The Three Pillars of Xbox LIVE on Windows Phone
- Break with the Past, Bright New Future: Windows Phone Application Development Platform built on XNA and Silverlight
- New XNA Creators Club Educational Material Available!