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Personal experiences developing for Windows Phone and related areas.
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@ailon
(Personal) [Hi]story
Prehistory
• In professional software development since 1995
• .NET developer since 2001 (beta)• WPF & Silverlight developer since
2008
Mobile development “experience”
• Downloaded Symbian SDK in 2005• Read a book on Windows Mobile
development in 2007
The Road to Windows Phone
January 2010 – MIX10k
• Won a trip to MIX10 conference with Silverlight 3 game called Tic-Tac-Toe 3D
February 2010 – MWC 2010• Windows Phone 7 Series announced
at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
• Developer story to be detailed at MIX10
March 2010 – Silverlight and XNA
• Silverlight and XNA announced as developer platforms for Windows Phone before MIX10
Excited!
March 2010 – MIX10
Can’t let go
• Following #wp7dev community on twitter
• Blogs• Events
August 2010 – amCharts Quick Charts
• Open source charting controls for Windows Phone released
http://wpf.amcharts.com/quick
November 2010
• Purchased LG Optimus 7 phone• ChevronWP7 released
December 2010 – Tic-Tac-Toe 3D
• Port of web (Silverlight 3) version
• Published through a virtual friend in Germany
December 2010
• Pushing for wider Marketplace expansion Created a developer survey for
Brandon Watson (Director of Developer Experience, Microsoft)
International Windows Phone 7 App Marketplace Petition (1600+ signatures)http://petol.org/wp7intl
January 2011 – AdDuplex
• Launched AdDuplex – ad exchange network for Windows Phone apps
February 2011 – Mango
• Next major release of Windows Phone OS code-named Mango announced at Mobile World Congress 2011
March 2011
• Speaking at Login 2011 and other events
• Yalla Apps announced
April 2011 – MIX11
May 2011 – ToMetric
• User experience oriented unit converter
• Reuses core logic code from web site developed last year
• Published through Yalla Apps
May 2011
• Interview on Windows Phone Dev Podcast
• Speaking at Mobile Monday
Development experience & tools
Great and free tools
• Expression Blend, Visual Studio, XNA Studio• http://create.msdn.com
Expression Blend
Great tools
“Truth be told, I had fun with the Windows Phone SDK. Whereas the Android tools and APIs frustrated me to no end, I had little trouble picking up Windows Phone and translating many of the paradigms and lessons I’ve learned on the Apple platform to Microsoft’s”Justin Williams, iOS developerhttp://carpeaqua.com/2011/01/02/from-iphone-to-windows-phone-7/
“The more I make things with the WP7 SDK, the more I like it. I feel safe writing all the XAML from scratch”“… I'd certainly prefer it to Android's SDK”Steven Troughton-Smith, iOS developerhttps://twitter.com/#!/stroughtonsmith/status/67125106463350784https://twitter.com/#!/stroughtonsmith/status/67130744719409152
“It’ll take me 2 to 4 times as long to build a similar app in iOS versus Windows Phone.”Kelly WhiteYet Another Podcast #33“I am a Java Profesional by day, #wp7dev and #android
game developer by night. I prefer WP7 over Android.”Andrew Postmahttp://twitter.com/#!/AndrewKPostma/status/70501048619507712
Some issues
• Limited APIs in current version (no sockets, no raw camera access, no local DB, etc.)
• Some performance issues (lists)• No multitasking• All (supposedly) solved in Mango
Experience developing Tic-Tac-Toe 3D
• From web to phone in 10 minutes
• Tombstoning – substantial amount of time to implement
• Adapting for touch• Publishing via a
virtual friend
Marketing, Distribution, Monetization
Marketing channels
• Twitter #wp7• Windows Phone blogs
wpcentral.com wmpoweruser.com 1800pocketpc.com
(bestwp7games.com)
• Podcasts Windows Phone Dev Podcast Windows Phone Radio
Distribution
• Official Windows Phone Marketplace – inaccessible to Lithuanian developers
• Global Publishing Partners appamarket.com – recommended by
Microsoft for CEE YallaApps.com – focus on MEA region
• Friends, family, business partners
Monetization: Free vs. Paid
• Free get 10x more downloads than paid (even with fully functional trials)
• Paid apps with trials get 70% more purchases than without trials
• Free with ads works better for long running apps (for US developers)
Monetization: Advertising
• Microsoft’s pubCenter Pays by impression US-only (expanding this year)
• Google AdMob, Smaato, etc. Pay by click
Monetization: Public info
• $200-400 per dayElbert Perez (11 games)http://www.occasionalgamer.com/
• $28,000 in 4 monthsRichard Foster (14+ apps)http://advertising.microsoft.com/foster-windows7apps
• $30Alan Mendelevich ;)
• Ad Exchange – promote apps for free
• Advertising – commercial ad campaigns
• Mixed model – exchange + monetization
Why develop for Windows Phone?
Easier to get to the top
VS
Small market Huge market
Huge player Small player
Market share WILL grow
• Nokia• Basically no missing
features in Mango• Heavy investments
from Microsoft
Tools are great and getting better
• Accelerometer/gyroscope emulation
• GPS emulation• Profiler
Great community
• Large and friendly community on Twitter (#wp7dev, #wpdev)
• Active forums at App Hub http://create.msdn.com
• Accessible product teams• Intersects with general Silverlight
and .NET communities
Summary
• Modern platform which is a joy to develop for
• In it for a long run• Main pain-point: distribution and
consumption in Lithuania
Thank you!
Image sources
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/digital-noise/3725891305/
• http://www.maxima.lt• http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyjc
ase/2591754028/
