Microsoft: how to port iPhone apps to Windows Mobile

Do any WinMo devices even support multitouch?

Somebody says "Not everyone wants an iPhone" and gets voted down into oblivion.... pretty funny.


Anyways, if I recall, Microsoft was giving VS away to students; that may still be the case. Even if not, I'm pretty sure there's a drastically discounted student edition.

"Microsoft will have quite a task ahead of them in this market, considering Apple's considerable lead and foothold. However, there are many (to say the least) Windows Mobile devices out there as well as people for whom "Windows Mobile" means business."

OK Dave? Dave?!

Are you even *remotely aware* of how many WinMo phones are out there, how many can be upgraded to support this, and how many years and years and years and years people have been selling software on the platform?!

Or how long Microsoft has been making money hand over fist selling digital content direct to consumers?!

You know...Apple "invents" barely anything anymore...and they certainly didn't invent mobile software sales!

C'mon TUAW. Watch the editing guys. Really. I hate to jump on that bandwagon, but that statement is really ridiculous.

The notion that *Microsoft* would have any kind of trouble selling software on their mobile platform directly is patently absurd. Selling software is Microsoft's business.

-K

I was actually in the process of signing up to develop for Windows Mobile a few weeks ago before I noticed that you cannot develop for it using the Visual Express tools. In otherwards, as well as paying the sign up fee, and the fee for each app you want to sell, you have to spend a lot of money on the full versions of Visual Studio! No way I'm going to pay for the dev tools when I don't even know how committed I will be to the platform. Think I'll stick with developing iPhone apps for now on my FREE Xcode development environment. Another fail for M$

so much for multi-touch w/ your thumbs.

To me one of the big disadvantages of the WinMo platform is the diverse range of hardware different devices have. My last WinMo device was an HP iPAQ. It was really frustrating that at every new iteration of the OS you needed to actually buy a new PDA that supported it, instead of just being able to upgrade the OS. True, some of the newer devices support 1 or 2 new versions, but soon enough if you want the latest you will have to buy a new device. That's how Microsoft's business model works. It's the same way in the PC arena. Buy new hardware if you want the latest OS.

The iPhone creates a much bigger market by allowing previous generation devices to run the latest and greatest versions of the OS.

I know this is an Apple site, but everytime I read this page, someone glaringly misses the point.

Not everyone wants an iPhone. There, see?

As a WinMo user, I'll be the first to say the iPhone is overall superior in a great many ways. Why don't I have an iPhone? Simply put, AT&T. They're much higher cost, lower data speed, worse voice coverage in Baltimore. Period. No device is worth paying more money, for less service. Period. So people like me might wait for LTE and hope things improve (or the iPhone moves to VZW). People are also on contract with other carriers, and don't want to pay $175+ to bail on their contract. Third, other folks are on Blackberries or whatever corporate device their business gives them. For whatever reason, their managers will not switch to the iPhone. So that means they could A - Stick with what they have, and their company foots the bill, or B - Get an iPhone, and pay for it, only to have worse Exchange support. I think the iPhone is great, but maybe a little less great for business. Third, people like me, just plain old do not want an iPhone. I won't bore you with the details, just know that the positives I find in WinMo outweigh the positives in the iPhone. Just for me, you know.. me personally. And since I'm making the decisions here (and footing the bill), no need for whatever peanut gallery to attempt to change my mind or tell me that WinMo sucks (because for me, it does not). So to make blanket statements like that well.. speaks narrow-mindedly. Sorry buddy, like it or not, there's a market for WinMo apps, hate to burst that bubble.

Good move on Microsofts part. They understand the key to this new smartphone market: apps, apps, apps and more apps. I wouldn't be opposed to owning a windows mobile phone provided I can get one without a data plan, but still have access to decent app library. Problem is that it just doesn't exist.

And I want to buy a Zune phone because?

With WinMo losing market share why would anybody bother, better to spend the time on Android code. And last time I looked the dev tools were not free.