Well, as part of the typically moronic strategy for Windows Mobile devices comes word out of the recent MIX conference that Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Mobile 7 or “Windows Phone” will not support native applications, according to this quote from PC World:
[1] “Microsoft will only support development of applications running in the Silverlight runtime environment, or of games in the XNA Game Studio runtime environment, it announced last week at its Mix conference. It will not allow third party app developers direct access to the phone’s hardware, where they might be better able to exploit its potential.”
Windows Mobile has consistently failed to deliver a viable product. It is a stunning legacy carried by the Windows Mobile product line where the company has so overwhelmingly failed in the mobile phone market, and no surprise given (let’s face it) the crappy nature of the handsets, coupled with a poor-performing client OS.
Any nifty concepts (there have been quite a few) have been overwhelmingly cancelled out by basic usability issues and nightmare performance. As Windows Mobile users, we’ve seen our fair share of mind numbing stuff ups, such as “ActiveSync” and the synchronization process-from-hell (wiping of contacts) which has been well documented on various forums.
The Windows Phone (7) was looking like an astute piece of technology and (par for the course) we find out something like this which probably scuttles any would-be early adopters.
As someone who has written applications with both the .Net Compact Framework and eMbedded C++ I can tell you that native apps are the only way to go for any serious software on the Windows Mobile platform, so this is a really stupid but not altogether surprising move on Microsoft’s behalf.
[1] http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/340570/mozilla_stops_development_firefox_windows_mobile/
