By popular demand, a bit more time for you to craft a great #WP7 app
We're blown away by the heroic efforts of the first entrants looking to win one of our three $10,000 prizes. And we're hearing that, despite heroic struggles, some developers just don't have the tools and most developers don't have access to the handsets to design, build, test and market great Windows Phone 7 apps. So we're extending the deadline for our competition to the end of February.
Looking back, it's been some journey!
Not long ago, Microsoft was being all but written off as a contender in the smartphone category. In 2002 Blackberry outflanked the jack-of-all-trades Windows Mobile by re-inventing the smartphone as a super-focused platform email on-the-go.
And then, in early 2007, came iPhone. The insight doesn't sound so stunning: a great smartphone should be a desirable object for consumers, emphasising form and function. But it really did change everything. Including creating the void - an equivalent experience but with room for other mobile manufacturers - that Google is filling with Android.
So it's maybe not a surprise that when Red Gate asked the .NET community what they were planning when they were targeting mobile platforms, the word 'Microsoft' didn't come up so often - even after the first promising reviews of Windows Phone 7 revealed that rather than a patch-up of Windows Mobile this was a fresh start.
In fact, if this platform has one thing going for it, it's the design vision. To quote another review,
The UI is a thing of beauty. Microsoft got the style, customization and performance one hundred percent right on this thing. It makes iOS feel old and utilitarian. It’s funny to think that Microsoft was the one to out-simplify Apple in the UI department.
For developers, that's a great opportunity. But it's also been limited by a number of factors.
Incomplete APIs and system limitations in the first version are backed up by huge commitment to iterate fast. And we're hearing from some of you that your app will only sing with some of the expected improvements coming very early in the new year (we hear).
Developer handset availability has been limited. So the develop and test cycle has been difficult. Lots of app v1 ratings and reviews have been full of comments like, "this doesn't work on my HD7."
We've heard plenty of good reasons why great devs aren't keen to rush. And we've seen some brilliant entries already (respect!). So we're giving you the gift of time.
You now have until February 28th, 2011 to enter.
Have fun. And the best of luck!
