Just yesterday, we heard that the Windows Phone Developer Tools will be going gold on September 16. This led many to speculate that we should be seeing Windows Phones by late September to Early October. Microsoft has come forward to let the tech word know that the Windows Phone Marketplace will be available in “early October”, so I would guess we’ll see an official release of the new OS sometime in mid-to-late October.
Over 300,000 copies of the dev tools have been downloaded, according to Microsoft, so Microsoft should be able to burst onto the mobile scene with a decent library of titles, including their recent news about expected Xbox LIVE titles.
The “gold” developer tools will finally include the ability to build applications using the metro UI’s “panorama” and “pivot” elements. These two elements are key to the Windows Phone 7’s sweeping UI and hub-based system. Up until now, we have been able to download the beta developer tools for free, which will not change, they will continue to be free.
The process for creating and submitting apps to the Marketplace will be similar to Apple’s model. Apps will need to be approved by Microsoft in order to show in the Marketplace. Let’s just hope that they are not as strict as the infamous app-submitting process used by Apple.
Personally, I did download the tools about a month ago and fooled around with them a bit. My programming is a bit rusty and I was never great at it, but the tools are very straight forward and easy to pick up. If you are interested in trying them out, you can download them here.
And for those who need a good step-by-step training guide, Nancy Strickland has hosted a series of “Windows Phone 7 in 7 Minutes! (Beta)” videos, which essentially breaks down the highlights of developing for Windows Phone in 7 minute videos. The videos are helpful, free to view and concise. You can view them here.
Do we have any readers who are developing or are going to develop for Windows Phone 7? And, if so, what are you developing?
