Todd helpfully re-published the Windows Mobile Silverlight roadmap recently. It does not make exciting reading. In amongst news of Impressive Google Android Apps, (and here) a T-Mobile Android phone this year (from HTC) and endless twitter about iPhone and 3G, the road map is hardly going to light any fires. Here's my take on the Windows Mobile roadmap in general, followed by my hope of a glimmer of light for all us WM developers and users...
- Windows Mobile 6.1 was just released - really nothing to write home about - threaded SMS is nice but there is not much else here - in particular the Getting Started Application is very lame - just a list of items, that when clicked show some text and links to the real apps. The worst is the "Make a Call" option shown below - really does this add anything? Couldn't a few more images or even a little animation have helped? Why have the icon shown for step 1 but not step 3? My mum was just baffled by this, and my 12 year old daughter just could not understand why anyone would find this useful.
- We are still waiting for Silverlight 1.0 support on Windows Mobile. At Mix08 I attended various mobile talks (Amit Chopra: "The wait is finally over, we have Silverlight for Windows Mobile" - from one of the less impressive sessions), where Silverlight 1.0 was promised shortly after Mix. According to Todd a CTP should be available soon - a CTP? of Silverlight 1? Come on guys, Silverlight 1 should be done and dusted by now, it was announced at Mix07, we need Silverlight 2 and a WPF-like UI.
- Todd says: "We'll get the first "official" Silverlight for Mobile (1.0) towards the end of this year, sometime after Silverlight 2.0 officially ships for the desktop. Around the same time we should get a CTP of Silverlight 2.0 for Mobile." - That isn't very positive language, "should" sounds a little shaky to me. (Todd isn't employed by Microsoft though, so perhaps we shouldn't read too much into that)
- Location Services - this is a high growth area - sales of Mobile Navigation devices has doubled and location based services are an important aspect of mobile development. Google look like they may make their Geolocation API public - this lets you get your location on devices that haven't got a built in GPS - using the Skyhook service, and is seen in Google Maps Mobile currently. Windows Mobile has the Intermediate GPS Driver and some sample code to get you started. However in our experience this sample is buggy and the Intermediate driver is implemented differently across different hardware manufacturers (ask me for details), making it hard for developers to take advantage of. Look how easy it is on Android - this is how it should be on Windows Mobile too.
- UI - We all know there is plenty wrong with Windows Mobile UI - and that IPhone sales are beating WM in the US (though both are behind RIM and Symbian) and the Android will do the same IMHO. Microsoft will be acutely aware of this too, so why the delay for Silverlight on Windows Mobile?
The glimmer of light
OK so Windows Mobile is not in a great way compared to the competition at the moment, but is there any hope that Microsoft is actually keeping their rapid development of Windows Mobile 7 behind closed doors, and that they may actually get a device to the market this year, together with Silverlight and a UI that can compete with IPhone and Android? Well there may be. Some clues:
I really hope Microsoft are planning to surprise us with Windows Mobile this year. Android is starting to get developers excited, and if they can get it out on more than the T-Mobile device, I think it offers real competition - we will certainly consider it for future mobile development, based on the look of the Api, but I would prefer to stay with Windows Mobile if it can improve it's api and UI support.
Cheers
Ian