Who here is excited for the windows phone 7

#1 I am certainly excited. I was able to get hands on time with a Microsoft developer's personal WP7 device, which was quite fun and interesting (this was at Casual Connect). I definitely liked the phone's design.

I am waiting to test the first gen release to see if I want to bite the bullet. I do not currently own a smart phone, since I've been holding off for something like the iPhone 4. Now that it is out, I'm going to wait just a bit more to see how the first gen WP7 devices fare. I will be writing code for either, regardless.

#2 Seems like a lot of extra coding and pain for EVERYONE just because of a stupid cell phone. Ok, ok! I know it's actually cool and eventually will be nice to deploy to, but it doesn't change the fact I HATE phones of all types. :-) I dont own a cell phone, and hope to never acquire one. (maybe I will settle for a deactivated dev phone) :-)

#3 The WinPhone stuff is looking really good... i predict everyone will be extremely happy with what IA will be shipping. ;)

@Aaron - I bet MS uses the iOS/Android model and deply the WinPhone OS to tablets before too long.

#4 @Tom: Sure Microsoft will... problem is that there is nothing new about those devices anymore so it cannot be a frenzy of any type, it's just another player on a well established market. BTW Microsoft is well known for Windoes Mobile... not a good thing for marketing, not good credentials before the prospect customers.

Morover I agree with Aaron... I hate those things... I just use the mobile to make and receive calls. For sure AFAIK on WP7 there isn't even the ability to Cut&Paste ... iPhone has it... I could continue for a full page explaining why the current established mobile leaders are better than WP7, but I'll spare you the pain of reading a too long post full of well known things.

#5 Isn't the new Zune thing also using the same OS? Or have they gone and made every device use something different again? Not that it helps, since they rarely release their devices outside the US ;)

#6 @Ronny - If there is to be a new Zune i would be extremely surprised if it wasn't based on the WinPhone OS.

Since XNA 4.0 has been designed to be easier to work with across multiple platforms (the whole point of Reach/HiDef) it should be a fairly quick process to move the Torque XNA runtime to any other device. ;)

#7

Quote:The WinPhone stuff is looking really good... i predict everyone will be extremely happy with what IA will be shipping. ;)

Well I guess there is a first time for everything ;)

I think you should say a larger percentage of you than usual will be happy. There are complainers in every forum here.

#8 LOL, Honestly I have a game all ready to go. Debating weather to just do everything myself or wait for IA to release their new version. I hope their windows phone 7 version doesn't cost 700 dollars like the iphone one.

#9 Who's suggesting that Torque X 4.0 CEV won't work on the phone?

:)

#10 Wow that would be cool :)

On another note. Do you think that making WP7 games will be commercially viable like iphone games?

#11 @John: I'm not joking. None of us want to rewrite the 3.1.5 projects (published or in development) anew for the Phone... we'll use Torque X 4.0 CEV for that. BTW, the Windows port is working and over this week-end I guess the Xbox part will be finished. After that we'll focus on the phone.

Microsoft has a bad name in the mobile world and a tiny market. Out there iPhone and Android have almost all the spotlights. Even if Microsoft will spend a fortune advertising WP7 I don't believe it will be a biggie. I'll publish a few games there to see what happens but I'm not excited for the platform... What would excite me is a strong campaign about XBLIG and stronger rules to avoid (cr)applications on the channel.

#12 Im with you on the XBLIG. Im glad it exists but it needs to be much better than it is right now.

I will also make a couple of games for the WP7. On that topic WP7 Is set to launch fairly soon. Do you know how hard the certification process is?

#13 Not much harder than XBLIG, the rules are set in a more clear way so it's impossible not to understand. You have to pay $99 to get the app/game certified so obviously the dev will think and test more than they do for XBLIG peer review.

#14 I'm so excited about WP7!
I hope to see TorqueWP7 with a good price.

#15 I am not that exited about all the XNA stuff anymore...feel kinda let down by microsoft, as selling or buying from XBLIG still is not possible from my country (switzerland). Initially, I thought countries will be added shortly, but now 2 years after the XNA launch, Microsoft just enabled a few countries more.
The idea to have my own game running on xbox is still great, but as it's not possible to sell, I lost motivation and I think I will focus more on pc again, but then with another engine than TorqueX.
But I appreciate Pinos efforts as IA/GarageGames are once more dropping a not finished product for something new.

#16 @John who says iPhone games are commercially viable. the average sales for 99% of the iPhone devs is like $200.

Here's an article: techcrunch.com/2010/05/16/iphone-app-sales-exposed/

#17 Ive always wanted to know that figure. :P

Then again Bejewled 2 sold 3 million. :)

We'll see if anything on the WP7 will sell that many.

#18 At the moment I'm solidly underwhelmed by WP7 :-/

#19 @Andy: I'm sorry to bear bad news but... it's not Microsoft fault. The XBLIG countries are those were the legislation allows the distribution of unrated games to the general public (including minors). Microsoft is very much willing to bring the Indie channel in every country worldwide but... local governaments are not really on the same page, so you have to blame your politicians for the fact that you cannot avail of the channel (same story here in Ireland).

#20 Apple have voluntary ESRB ratings on iOS apps. Why can't MS do the same? Apple are currently beating them by 70 or so countries, which is why I can't get excited about WinPhone 7.