Mix10: Microsoft Outlines New Opportunities for Developers to Create Compelling Experiences on Windows Phone 7 Platform
This morning, at Mix10,in Las Vegas, Nevada, Microsoft unveiled end-to-end development platform with free tools for Windows Phone 7 Series and advances with Silverlight that will bring new applications, games and experiences to life.
Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, .NET Developer Platform, and Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president, Windows Phone Program Management, detailed the opportunity for developers to use proven technologies such as Microsoft Silverlight and the XNA Framework to build new mobile applications and 3-D Games.
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"As the browser, server, Web and devices evolve, a focus on delivering consistently great user experiences has become paramount," Guthrie said. "By extending our familiar platform technologies and tools to phones, Microsoft is delivering the premier application development experience across a variety of devices and form factors."
During the keynote, Microsoft provided the first deep dive into Windows Phone 7 Series application development. By combining Silverlight features for rich application development and the XNA Framework for games, Windows Phone 7 Series empowers millions of developers and designers to build visually stunning and immersive applications and games — one of the industry’s most profitable mobile application categories — while taking advantage of device-specific capabilities. Specifically, developers will be able to take advantage of the following features:
- Accelerometer, an intuitive control that responds to motion
- A Microsoft Location Service to provide developers with a single point of reference to acquire location information
- Microsoft Notification Service for pushing information to the phone, regardless of whether or not an application is running
- Hardware-accelerated video with digital rights management (DRM)
- Internet Information Services Smooth Streaming for the industry’s highest quality content viewing experience
- Multitouch
- Camera and microphone support
Microsoft also hands out free Tools for Windows Phone 7 Series Developers and Designers
To further support an end-to-end development experience, Microsoft announced the availability of comprehensive tools support for Windows Phone 7 Series. The easy-to-install package includes previews of the following:
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
- Windows Phone 7 Series add-in to use with Visual Studio 2010 RC
- XNA Game Studio 4.0
- Windows Phone 7 Series Emulator for application testing
- Expression Blend for Windows Phone Community Technology Preview (available as a separate download)
Microsoft also showed how developers and designers will be able to bring applications and games to market with a new Windows Phone Marketplace. The Marketplace features a panoramic design and active merchandising to increase the discoverability of games and applications, and supports one-time credit card purchases, mobile operator billing and advertising-funded applications. The Marketplace will also enable customers to try applications before buying them and allow developers to cross-promote their applications through deep linking.
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