Anyway, Windows Phone 7 looks like a fresh start – but will it work?

Development is great for Windows developers because, as you would expect, it is based on the Silverlight platform. What will this mean for the general public? Will existing mobile developers want to take on another platform?

Many aren’t coping with supporting iOS and Android, let alone looking at a third option. However, will it encourage new mobile development from Windows developers that didn’t feel comfortable delving into iOS or Android platforms? Time will tell.

If things go well for Windows Phone 7 it could actually push Silverlight forward and it could become a bigger player on the desktop web too.

Windows Phone 7 does not support HTML5 however. Many people were thinking that HTML5 web apps were the way forward for cross platform mobile apps. You can still have web apps on Windows Phone 7, but HTML5 provides those extra features that turn a web page into a web app, certainly on mobile devices.

Interesting times.

Windows Mobile 7

At work the concensus amongst the developers at Caplin seems to be that they like Android as a platform and there’s quite a bit of excitement about the Google Nexus One which will contain the Android 2.1 operating system.

Nexus Google One Phone

Since I’ve been involved in most of the Microsoft product development here I’m interested to see if there is any chance of Windows Mobile doing anything. I’m excited about the inclusion of Silverlight in Windows Mobile 7, as I blogged about some time back, and have just read a small piece that indicates Microsoft are keen to take gaming mobile with XBox 360 integration.

A while back, just after we’d ported StreamLink.NET to the Silverlight runtime, I took an R&D day to try to port StreamLink.NET to Windows Mobile. I made good progress but left things in a non-compiling state. More recently I had another opportunity to take a day to try and finish the work off. The codebase had moved slightly so I had to do a little more work that I’d planned and now I’m left with a single compilation error based around the .NET Compact Framework not having the WaitHandle.WaitAny method. To resolve this I’m going to have to go native or we may have to consider purchasing the fantastic Smart Device Framework.

If Windows Mobile 7 supports Silverlight then maybe you could argue that my time spent porting StreamLink.NET to Windows Mobile has been wasted? Or, maybe you would argue that any time spent developing for the Windows Mobile platform is a waste of time? Personally, I like Windows Mobile as a platform, I have a Windows Mobile phone and I think the Windows Mobile development experience in Visual Studio is second to none. For these reasons, and because competition can lead to improved products, I hope Windows Mobile 7 makes a challenge in the final furlongs of the mobile platform race.

The goal of Silverlight is to provide a consistent experience across desktop and mobile phones. Developers will be able to easily optimize Silverlight applications for mobile form factors or run existing Silverlight applications on mobile phones.

The great thing about this release is that any existing Silverlight applications should work on any mobile device with Silverlight installed. The question about this is that if you design a user interface for a desktop browser how will it fit on a windows mobile browser? Well, Microsoft plan to give developers the ability to “optimize Silverlight applications for mobile form factors” which sounds like they will give us a way of dealing with the obvious UI differences between desktop and mobile platforms, as well as the underlying runtime issues.

We’ve already blogged about what impact Silverlight may have on single dealer portals. I’m really excited to see what developers can do using StreamLink for Silverlight to enable the real-time web on a windows mobile device. What opportunities might Streamlink for Silverlight Mobile enable?

Silverlight for Mobile

Read the Silverlight for Mobile FAQ for more information.