[cygwin98]

There's an update to this article about a few minutes ago: Update: Microsoft has clarified, and appliations built for WP8 will not run on WP7.5/7.8 (native C/C++ appliations), we're asking for more details.

That would bother me if those new apps can't be run on WP7.

[untog]

That update is confusing in itself. I think it means that native C++ apps will not run, but others will. Still unclear, though.

[mtgx]

So basically anyone who is writing an app for WP8 will have to start with a market share of 0% and 0 units in the market.

[barista]

Nope. They start with market share of all installed windows phone.

Plus they have all the windows desktop/tablet users who could use their app as well.

[onetwothreefour]

Well, you're wrong because WP7 is now pretty much dead.

So there's literally no reason to target it, and anything written in C/C++ is only going to run on WP8.

So they've pretty much killed off their already lagging platform in preference for a new lagging platform with 0 installed base.

Microsoft are smoking some serious crack. I'm glad our company didn't spend a second developing for WP. What a clusterf*ck.

[barista]

Only the new apps that use features (e.g. native support) not available on older phones will not work on older phones. Is that not how iOS and android upgrade too?

[onetwothreefour]

No, that's not how iOS or Android upgrades work because those companies specced out their platforms before launching them to market.

You can't just "add native support" after the fact. That's a major addition which should have been there from day one.