When I’ve first heard about MS’s plans about it’s new mobile platform I was excited. The main reason it was the ability to develop mobile apps using known platform and tools: C#, Silverlight and Visual Studio. Ability to quick scratch an app during a weekend, put it on the phone and be using it – it looked nice.
Watching Windows Phone 7 Jump Start sessions make me more confident it my ability to develop applications for the platform.
Same time, I’m getting a bit worried about two things.
First one - inability to install on the phone an application that I have just wrote. It makes unhappy not only hobbyists that are writing code pieces “for fun” and, sometimes, they want to share them with their friends. But also it makes impossible to make use of the platform by a small/medium company that have created an app for their internal and private use. Inability to legally install any app on your phone – I’m not sure about it. I do understand that MS tries to protect users from potentially dangerous apps. And I understand that MS wants a “piece of cake” from every application sold for WP7. But this inevitably is stimulating “community” to create workarounds like jailbreaks, “custom firmware” and so on.
The second thing that worries me it’s “phone” focus. Look at the enormous success of Apple’s iPad, sold in millions last months. Tens of Android based tablets announced this fall. If Microsoft is limiting Windows Phone 7 only for smart phones, it’s a fail. Well, in a half of the year MS can announce new “tablet” platform, but it will be too late. Everyone interested will own already a iPad or an “Android pad”. Even me. At this moment I find it more practical to own a basic phone device and a 10” tablet. It just makes more sense…
In my experience, Windows 7 is not a player in tablet market nor in any other touch oriented devices. In same way how it happened with iOS and Android, Windows Phone 7 can be a good platform for a 10” tablet. But I think MS either decided do not participate, or came later. If the latter, it already lost the battle.
As for my “develop for a mobile/tablet device” dreams, there are few viable choices: learn new platform or try a surrogate, like MonoDroid or Moonlight.
Updated:
Just found and want to add it to this post - Ballmer (and Microsoft) still doesn’t get the iPad. A very interesting analysis of relations between Microsoft and touch devices. Lots of rumors and guesses, few interesting ideas and few very precise elucidations of MS failures in this area.
As for the future of an eventual tablet device from Microsoft, I’ll bet on marriage between Windows Embedded CE and Metro UI. Only that can stand out of iPad and tens of Android tablets coming next year…