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Three things that I hate in Windows Phone 7
First the list, then the comments:
1. No support for open source licenses
You simply can’t submit code licensed under GPL, AGPL and open source licenses in the marketplace. The following is taken from the Microsoft Application Provider Agreement, page 2.
Excluded Licenses include, but are not limited to the GPLv3 Licenses
2. Only C# supported
This means not only that you can’t port apps from Android or iPhone, but also that all the apps that were developed for windows mobile 6.5 are gone. You have to rewrite everything from scratch. (Except from things from XBOX. Oh, well. Games. Amazing. Microsoft is creating a new NGage -.-’)
Imagine you’re a windows mobile 6.5 developer and you need a new version of your app. Are you going to learn C# to port your app to windows phone 7, or to learn Java and move to Android, with his 25% of the market share?
Well, I know. You probably have already ported your app to Android/iOs.
3. Missing APIs
From a developer point of view, this is the worst one… you simply have no access to some APIs
- Camera API: third party apps can’t access the camera. They can take pictures, but nothing more. Forget about Layar or videochat on Windows Phone 7.
- Socket API: you simply can’t go beyond http. No socket API, no ETA for them to be released. The only solution are hacks like http tunneling or proxy or whatever. Nonsense.
- PIM API: you can’t access contacts or calendar information. This API is not available. No ETA also for this. Forget about getting your calendar or contacts data in a 3rd party app.
This are three things that hurt developers, but there are a missing features that are expected in a 2010 mobile OS:
- copy & paste
- tethering
- 3rd party multitasking
- VPN support
- Flash support
- USB mass storage mode
- Connecting to hidden wireless networks
We’re used to get APIs released later or with flaws (calendar APIs were released in iOS4, and there are still major bugs in the calendar APIs on Android 2.1… Funambol devs and community members know it well since they’re developing and testing workarounds all day ;) ), but I was hoping that the latecomers (such as MS in the new paradigm of mobile OSs) would have tried to get to the market in a better shape than the pioneers. You can’t compete with a product that’s less appealing than Android and iOS, and hope to get it better later because you can update the software OTA.
For sure Microsoft will add support for the missing functionalities and APIs: they were late (years late, to tell the truth) and they needed to get to market on time for Christmas… but I guess users will be disappointed by the SW, and developers will sit and wait, not considering Windows Mobile 7 a serious OSs until a new release is out.
francesco mapelli| Print article | This entry was posted by francesco mapelli on 2010/11/23 at 9:16 pm, and is filed under learning. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
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about 2 years ago
Doesn’t sound familiar? It’s the iPhone when they launch it, except in .Net you have a better choice of languages than with ObjectiveC only (yes, you can write .net c++… well, a sort of.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B/CLI). Both closed, both limited (also in the license).
But, people started loving ObjectiveC, just to be able to code for the iPhone, why shouldn’t be the same now? There are a LOT of .Net developers out there, at the end.
The answer of course is that iPhone was completely different at that time. It was too cool for user to ignore it. What is WinPhone now? A bad copy 4 years late.
Too limited, too late. It’s difficult to bet on its success…
A.
about 2 years ago
Based on your post, I must comment that Windows Phone 7 does have one thing that you definitely need – spell check.
about 2 years ago
Exactly. Four years later. This is the key point here :)
Thanks Mark, I fixed a few typos. Please keep pointing them out if you find them! :)
about 2 years ago
Good observations. Windows Phone 7 is clearly premature. Microsoft was thinking about Christmas, any doubt about that.
about 2 years ago
The only thing you said that isn’t total bullshit is the api;s missing. C# is a non-issue. It’s a better language than any of the others you mentioned, and it’s got a huge developer base. Excluding the vb guys is a good thing imo. There the bottom of the barrel. If you’re going for quality, good riddance. Furthermore, even if the language would be say objective c, you still would have to port your apps, because the api are different. Or are you seriously arguing that microsoft use apple’s api. The opensource license is also no big deal except in the opensource microcosmos. Apple apps are driven by peoply trying to make some money. If you want to opensource, just post your sources online seperately. They can’t allow gpl, since that would force them to include sources in the appstore.
about 2 years ago
Hi anonymous.
Thanks for the comment, you make good points
I agree that c# is a good language, my point is that they are latecomers and they’ve made a plan that is making difficult for them to get developers from other platforms: the current mobile developers are mainly java or objective c devs, trying to be appealing to them with an incomplete platform and a different language is hard.
Microsoft will probably get .net developers, they’ll start developing on mobile phones. It’s ok, is new people going for mobile development and is good for everybody. But Microsoft is late, and this is not a quick strategy.
My point on open source is a bit personal, I know, but as an employee of a big mobile open source company I strongly believe in open source microcosmos… and this is a list of things that I don’t like, it’s not necessarily something everybody should agree on :)
cheers
about 2 years ago
The Windows operating systems still don’t allow you to dump all of your information into a folder on your laptop with sub-folders for SMSs, contacts, etc. You always need to buy another product like Outlook to do this. I liked the old Nokia phone links. You could download every bit of information from your phone, write SMSs on your laptop, etc. Why can’t we do this with Windows 7?
about 1 year ago
I understand what you wrote. Maybe with Mango upgrade some API’s will be released. But, for the love of truth, I have an LG E900 and LG released an augmented reality browser that uses camera to search for shop and more in your neighborood using gps. You can see it in action here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd6q8ziQcbk
For the rest, I’m not a developer but I hope to see soon many useful apps on WinPhone7 that I’ve seen on Android devices.
about 1 year ago
Well i understand your problem but windows phones are amongst the best phones in the world.
about 1 year ago
As much as I love how windows have updated their interface from the absolutely ridiculous days of windows mobile 6, I still can’t decide to go with it over Android.
about 1 year ago
Those who use their phones for business will be happy to have mobile versions of Microsoft Office apps — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote — as well as excellent SharePoint integration. The Office apps aren’t as full featured as I might wish, but you get spell check, you can change font colors, and once cut and paste is added, you’ll be able to do a pretty adequate job of editing documents.
I think this is best windows phone functionality.
about 3 months ago
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about 1 month ago
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about 1 month ago
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about 1 day ago
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