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Windows Phone 7
The Windows Phone 7 Series, (the successor to the Windows Mobile platform), was launched in the US and Canada on November 8th, 2010.
To install the Windows Phone 7 development platform, download the Windows Phone SDK (Windows Phone Developer Tools), then download and install the Windows Phone Developer Tools January 2011 Update and the Windows Phone Developer Tools Fix. The January 2011 update should only be applied after you have installed the Windows Phone Developer Tools. For general information, go to the Windows Phone App Hub.
Mobile Development Software and Guides
The Windows Phone SDK (previously called the Windows Phone Developer Tools — WPDT) includes the following:
- Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone.
This is the express version of Visual Studio which enables you to develop and debug your mobile device application for free, since youwill not need the professional version of Visual Studio. You can use the Microsoft Visual Studio Professional if you desire; when the SDK detects it, it will install a Windows Phone 7 Series Add-in for Visual Studio. - Expression Blend 4.
The SDK comes with a limited version of the Microsoft Expression Blend 4 tool specifically for developing for Windows Phone. Download the full Expression Blend if you are interested in this professional design tool, building Web/WPF applications in Silverlight or using Sketchflow. If you already have Blend 4 installed, then the SDK will install an add-on to it to enable Phone development similar to Visual Studio. - Silverlight SDK.
This Microsoft technology lets you write an app once and optimize it for desktops, the web and mobile devices. Find out more about Silverlight. Silverlight 3 is included with Windows Phone 7.0. - XNA Game Studio.
Used for building XNA games, not just for the mobile device, but also for the desktop and Xbox 360. - Windows Phone 7 Series Emulator.
This emulator lets you debug your application as you would with any other Visual Studio project.
Microsoft provides a good Windows Mobile development environment. Developers get Expression Blend to design applications, Visual Studio to complete the development, and a high performance emulator to test and debug the application. Registered Dreamspark students can submit up to two free applications in the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Silverlight and XNA
Silverlight and XNA are the primary development platforms used for building consumer and gaming applications.
XNA |
Silverlight |
Windows Phone Framework |
|
Common Class Library & .Net Compact Framework |
|
The diagram above shows the layout of the two application based platforms that sits on top of the Windows Phone ecosystem. Only one of the platforms can have access to the screen at one time due to the different designs of each platform.
Windows Phone Development is based on the .NET Compact Framework, not to be confused with the full .NET framework, in which most of the core libraries are available; however, but there are some differences between the two platforms.
If your target development is based on vector graphics or relies on interactive items like buttons, Silverlight might be a better choice. If you target 3-D or 2-D gaming with motion or particle effects, XNA would probably be a better platform to choose.
Here is a comparison of benefits between the two platforms:
The benefits of XNA are:
- Great support for 3-D.
- Superior Graphical performance with direct screen and graphics card access.
- Built in game loop.
- The XNA content pipeline makes handling large stores of content easier.
- More image formats are supported.
- XNA can make games for Xbox, Windows and Windows Phone.
- Multiple Graphical blend modes for XNA, where Silverlight only has alpha blending.
- Lighter memory footprint for bitmap based games.
- Superior shader support.
- Drawing with tint is easier.
The benefits of Silverlight are:
- Rich Controls support, including buttons and list boxes.
- Expression Blend design support. XNA has no graphical editor.
- Event based model familiarity for developers.
- Data binding.
- Vector graphics support, XNA only supporting some very basic line drawing.
- Vector drawing of text, compared to the bitmap base for XNA text.
- Silverlight applications can target both mobile and the web.
- Storyboard animations.
- Visual states and behaviors.
- Navigation framework.
- VisualTreeHelper is useful for determining what element is being touched.
New device APIs
New device APIs is another improvement for Windows Phone 7. Location and push notification APIs are the most important features that are available to application developers. The location API uses a variety of techniques, including GPS, cell tower information (where possible), and Wi-Fi-based lookup (where possible) to determine the location of the mobile device. Push Notification gives developers the ability to be able to send asynchronous information to their mobile application. As an example: applications for e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter may want to update the user with any new events using the push notification API.
Security
Other enhancements are software security. Here is a quick rundown of security and business changes:
- Data security through PINs and passwords. The mobile device supports EAS policies, such as Require Password, Password Strength, Remote Wipe and Reset to Factory Settings with multiple failed unlock attempts.
- Data contained within the mobile device protection. No access allowed to data using PC tethering or support for removable SD cards.
- Application sandboxing and managed code. Windows Phone 7 doesn’t open communications channels between applications. There is no access to critical system resources.
- Browser induced malware threats are minimized. IE Mobile helps stop malicious code from being able to launch from Web sites.
- Enables secure data transmission. 128-bit or 256-bit SSL encryption.
- Supports secure access to on-premise applications and network resources. It uses the Forefront Universal Access Gateway (UAG).
- Cloud services integration. The mobile device supports mobile access to the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) from Outlook Mobile and the Office Hub.
Hardware Design Specification
Another significant feature of Windows Phone 7 application development is the hardware design specification. There is a single Windows Phone 7 Series hardware specification. Hardware manufacturers are required to use the following specification as a baseline to build devices running Windows Phone Operating System 7.0. Developers can count on the fact that all Windows Phone 7 Series hardware includes the following as a minimum:
- 1GHz Snapdragon processor.
- 256 MB of RAM with a minimum of 4 GB flash.
- 802.11 b/g wireless.
- Capacitive-only screen.
- Five sensors (A-GPS, accelerometer, compass, proximity, and light).
- Two screen options for kinds of screens (WVGA at launch and HVGA coming soon).
Marketplace
The Windows Phone 7 Series has included a new "marketplace" where you can sell your applications. This enables the centralization of all Windows Phone 7 applications. It makes application discovery much easier for mobile users. As an overview of the Windows Marketplace, here are some good-to-know policies:
- Annual registration fee: US $99.
- No limit on the number of paid apps submitted.
- Submit up to 100 free apps to Windows Phone Marketplace; additional submissions are US$19.99 per submission
- Free registration for Dreamspark students.
- A new optional push notification service for third-party developers.
- A new optional Trial API for developers who want to create try-then-buy apps.
- The ability to publish in all available Marketplace markets using a new "worldwide distribution" option.
- Free support, paid support, "freemium" (free with a paid upgrade path), and an ad-funded model.
- A full certification process to test apps for deployment to the market.
Created: 03-31-2010
