May 21st, 2010 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Events & Conferences, Platforms: Windows Mobile | No Comments »

Matthijs Hoekstra from Microsoft explains that Microsoft is ready for a new start with the new Windows Phone 7 platform. He noted that a ‘next’ version for Windows Mobile was dropped for Windows Phone 7.

Matthijs explains that Windows Phone 7 is build around persons instead of the foundation they already had with existing Windows Mobile based phones. For the graphical design, Microsoft investigated ‘signs’ and developed a ‘metro’ style for the GUI. Consumers are already used to the signs they see around them which should make them feel at home in Windows Phone 7. Next to the graphics, finger based navigation was an important factor in the overall design.

In regards to hardware, Microsoft noticed that every Windows Mobile phone till now was totally different in capacity and abilities. For that reason, Microsoft defined a base hardware specification to avoid performance issues. This also helps developers as they also know what sensors they can use in all WP7 devices.

Microsoft has three goals for WP7. Help end users personalize their experience, help developers make money from their work and enable cloud based services and experiences.

Microsoft also questioned several developers about the effort they need to put into building apps. Developers who develop for both Android and iPhone noted that development for Android is significantly faster than building an app on iPhone (about 20%). In fact, an app build with MS tools for WP7 still takes about 25% of the time needed to code an iPhone app but Microsoft is aiming to bring down that time even more.

Microsoft also explains why they chose for Push Notification to handle multi-tasking. One of the main reasons seems to be battery life as the device doesn’t have to run background processes and devices also don’t have to constantly poll the server. A few lines of code are shown to let developers know how easy it all is.

On the second of June, Microsoft will be organizing a free developer event so developers can kick start development on the platform. If you are here, contact Matthijs or Pim or tweet to @mahoekst.

The Mobile Unconference is sponsored by Samsung Mobile

Tags: Matthijs . Microsoft
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