Personal experiences developing for Windows Phone and related areas.

1. Windows PhoneDeveloper Story Alan Mendelevič AdDuplex, amCharts ailon@ailon.org @ailon

2. @ailon

3. (Personal) [Hi]story

4. Prehistory In professional software development since 1995 .NET developer since 2001 (beta) WPF & Silverlight developer since 2008

5. Mobile development “experience” Downloaded Symbian SDK in 2005 Read a book on Windows Mobile development in 2007

6. The Road to Windows Phone

7. January 2010 – MIX10k Won a trip to MIX10 conference with Silverlight 3 game called Tic-Tac-Toe 3D

8. February 2010 – MWC 2010 Windows Phone 7 Series announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Developer story to be detailed at MIX10

9. March 2010 – Silverlight and XNA Silverlight and XNA announced as developer platforms for Windows Phone before MIX10

10. Excited!

11. March 2010 – MIX10

13. Can’t let go Following #wp7dev community on twitter Blogs Events

14. August 2010 – amCharts Quick Charts Open source charting controls for Windows Phone released http://wpf.amcharts.com/quick

15. November 2010 Purchased LG Optimus 7 phone ChevronWP7 released

16. December 2010 – Tic-Tac-Toe 3D Port of web (Silverlight 3) version Published through a virtual friend in Germany

17. 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

18. January 2011 – AdDuplex Launched AdDuplex – ad exchange network for Windows Phone apps

19. February 2011 – Mango Next major release of Windows Phone OS code-named Mango announced at Mobile World Congress 2011

20. March 2011 Speaking at Login 2011 and other events Yalla Apps announced

21. April 2011 – MIX11

22. May 2011 – ToMetric User experience oriented unit converter Reuses core logic code from web site developed last year Published through Yalla Apps

23. May 2011 Interview on Windows Phone Dev Podcast Speaking at Mobile Monday

24. Development experience & tools

25. Great and free tools Expression Blend, Visual Studio, XNA Studio http://create.msdn.com

26. Expression Blend

27. 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 developer http://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” StevenTroughton-Smith, iOS developer https://twitter.com/#!/stroughtonsmith/status/67125106463350784 https://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 White Yet Another Podcast #33 “I am a Java Profesional by day, #wp7dev and #android game developer by night. I prefer WP7 over Android.” AndrewPostma http://twitter.com/#!/AndrewKPostma/status/70501048619507712

28. 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

29. 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

30. Marketing, Distribution, Monetization

31. Marketing channels Twitter #wp7 Windows Phone blogs wpcentral.com wmpoweruser.com 1800pocketpc.com (bestwp7games.com) Podcasts Windows Phone Dev Podcast Windows Phone Radio

32. 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

33. 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)

34. Monetization: Advertising Microsoft’s pubCenter Pays by impression US-only (expanding this year) Google AdMob, Smaato, etc. Pay by click

35. 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 ;)

36. Ad Exchange – promote apps for free Advertising – commercial ad campaigns Mixed model – exchange + monetization

37. Why develop for Windows Phone?

38. Easier to get to the top Huge market Small market VS Small player Huge player

39. Market share WILL grow Nokia Basically no missing features in Mango Heavy investments from Microsoft

40. Tools are great and getting better Accelerometer/gyroscope emulation GPS emulation Profiler

41. 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

42. Summary Modern platform which is a joy to develop for In it for a long run Main pain-point: distribution and consumption in Lithuania

43. Thank you!

44. @ailon ailon@ailon.org devblog.ailon.org

45. Image sources http://www.flickr.com/photos/digital-noise/3725891305/ http://www.maxima.lt http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyjcase/2591754028/