Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/03/16/microsoft_windows_phone_7_details/
Windows Phone 7 - what's in and what's out
MS says everything's in. Just not in this release
Posted in Personal Tech, 16th March 2010 09:19 GMT
Mix10 "In this release, our focus is on phones purchased by consumers," said Microsoft’s Charlie Kindel, describing the Windows Phone 7 developer platform to attendees at the Mix conference in Las Vegas on Monday.
"In this release" turns out to be a constant refrain, as he answers questions, usually in the negative.
Is there a local SQL database engine? There is, but it is not exposed to applications in this release. Can applications communicate with each other? Not in this release. They are isolated. Can applications run as a background service? Not in this release. They are paused when not in the foreground (though a notification from the cloud can wake them).
Can applications update themselves automatically? Not in this release. The user has to initiate the update. Is subscription billing possible? No, not in this release.
Among these limitations, one is particularly significant. Unless you are a developer, with a device unlocked by a Microsoft web service, the only way to deploy applications is via Windows Marketplace. Applications must be pre-approved by Microsoft, and the company collects 30 per cent of any revenue, though free applications are allowed.
There is no provision for corporate development – in this release, that is - which is a shame since the Silverlight-based platform would otherwise be attractive for things like business intelligence applications that benefit from rich hardware-accelerated graphics.
A clue about why so much is not yet ready comes when Kindel tells us that intense work on Windows Phone 7 only began around a year ago. It raises the question: What was Microsoft doing to address the known problems of its mobile platform before then? Sales of Windows Mobile devices are in free fall, down 20 per cent between October 2009 and January 2010 according to recent US figures from ComScore.
Microsoft’s response is late, but radical. Windows Phone 7 is a new platform that will not run Windows Mobile applications, with an elegant user interface focused on delivering the good user experience that the old platform lacked. The company has not had time to go beyond the consumer market in the first release, promised in time for the Christmas 2010 season.
The implication is that there may be a business-oriented professional release in future, designed to meet corporate development needs. In the meantime, business developers determined to use Windows devices must stick with Windows Mobile 6.5 and develop with Visual Studio 2008 or earlier.
Another common question concerns native code. "Windows Phone 7 Series delivers an all managed code platform," said a Microsoft spokesman. There is no native API. There is one really – Windows Phone 7 has Windows CE underneath – but it is not generally available to third parties.
Native exception
That said, it seems there will be an exception. Kindel says that Microsoft is working with Adobe to bring the Flash runtime to Windows Phone 7, though it will not be ready "in this release," even though it is a native coded piece. I asked whether other runtimes such as Java might be supported? Kindel says it is unlikely.
His rationale is that Flash is necessary in order to provide a full web experience (a jibe at Apple’s refusal to allow it on iPhone or iPad), but that Java does not feature strongly in that context.
These remarks confirm Microsoft’s intention to make Windows Phone 7 a tightly controlled platform. This control extends to hardware as well as software. Although hardware vendors will be able to vary features to some extent, the devices will be sufficiently standardised that developers should not have to worry about which Windows 7 phone the user has.
For example, there are just two standard screen resolutions, 800-by-480 pixels for the first devices, and 480-by-320 for cheaper devices planned later. Developers need only check that applications run in both these resolutions.
Which version of the .NET Framework is supported on Windows Phone 7? Kindel says it is a super-set of what Silverlight 3.0 provides, but does not include everything in Silverlight 4.0. He adds that although there are currently two distinct development platforms, Silverlight for general applications or XNA for games, Microsoft intends to bring them closer together in future.
The Xbox 360 is also part of this puzzle. Currently, XNA games run on Xbox, but not Silverlight. However, the intention is to bring Silverlight to Xbox in future. Joining the dots, it seems Microsoft may eventually merge Silverlight and XNA.
Kindel says it will be easy for developers to offer trial versions of their applications. A built-in method called IsTrial will allow code that is conditional on whether the user has purchased the applications. He also addresses the vexed question of application approval, a process which Microsoft says will be "very transparent". Applications will be judged in three areas, he says, these being business factors, technical factors, and content factors. More details are promised shortly. ®