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by luffy 5726 days ago
I'm currently working on several applications for WP7. The development experience for WP7 is a million-billion times better than it was for past Windows Mobile operating systems.

- The emulator is snappy and you don't need to mess around with ActiveSync.

- I'm not a huge fan of the XAML (the Silverlight/WPF markup language), but that is not an issue. I put a XAML place holder element in place and add controls in C#

- The built in controls look great and are surprisingly functional. I specifically thinking of the Panorama control - which allows application content to basically flow off screen. Some may find that style of having content get cut off by the edge of the display off-putting, but its effective if that truncated content is limited to titles.

- putting XNA in there is great, mostly for familiarity's sake. You still have to design for the phone differences (form factor, input, and library). Porting games over from XBox live probably won't require an enormous app-rewrite. Can't wait to see how this particular piece plays out.

The one drawback I can see has to do with Windows Phone store. I'm not really sure what the story is there. Is app distribution really limited to the store? How about enterprise apps?

I don't have experience developing iPhone or Android apps, so I won't comment on whether or not WP7 is better in that department.
2 comments
steverb 5726 days ago
My limited number of contacts at MS tell me that an Enterprise deployment solution is coming, but they couldn't get it done in time for the initial release.

I hope it's better than Apple's solution.

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allwein 5726 days ago
What problems do you have with Apple's Enterprise deployment solution?
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steverb 5726 days ago
It's improved with IOS4 as you can now deploy wirelessly by having the users visit a web site. With 3 the only way to deploy was using the configuration utility or have the users install with iTunes.

What we keep begging them for is the ability to point out users at our own enterprise app store, hosted on either Apple's servers or our own. It's also what I keep telling MS whenever I get a chance.

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cameldrv 5726 days ago
It's impossible to distribute an iPhone or an itouch as the user interface to custom hardware. It's also impossible to distribute an internal application if you only have 499 employees.
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jf 5726 days ago
Yeah ... app distribution is really limited to the store.

(PS: Send me an email? Would love to hear what you're working on)

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