Microsoft details how to port programs from Apple's App Store

[AppleInsider]

In an attempt to encourage developers to bring their software to Windows Mobile, Microsoft has published a technical document describing how to port applications from the iPhone to the platform one company official said has a superior Web browser.

Speaking at the Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting last week, Robbie Bach, the company's president of Entertainment & Devices Division, told investors that the browser in Windows Mobile 6.5 will offer users more Web sites than the iPhone's Safari.

"So, in 6.5, let's just pick an example, you'll see our browsing experience get dramatically better," Bach said. "So, you will have a very rich browsing experience on 6.5 devices that will give you access to more Web sites than you will be able to get to on an iPhone, that will work actively and work well. It really is a much better experience. We will have to continue to enhance that because the browser world is advancing very quickly. But, that's an experience people expect to work and that's just one example of many experiences that we're building to expand in that area, so choice in selection, great end-to-end experiences."

Microsoft is pushing Windows Mobile 6.5 hard as the company attempts to regain market share in the smartphone market. Since the introduction of the iPhone, the Windows Mobile platform has lost a considerable amount of steam.

In an effort to siphon off some of the success of Apple's App Store, Microsoft is attempting to help developers port their applications from the iPhone to Windows Mobile. Microsoft intends to have an App Store-like offering in Windows Mobile 6.5

The new document provides a case study on the iPhone application Amplitude, and how it was ported to Windows Mobile 6.5. The App Store offering from Gripwire.com aims to turn an iPhone or iPod touch into a sound amplifier. It was developed by Luke Thompson, a member of the company's development team.

"Based on his experience, it offers technical depth, code samples, useful links, observations, and tips to help accelerate porting projects," the Microsoft Developer Network document reads. "It is intended for developers who have written applications for the iPhone using the Objective-C language and would like to port their applications to Windows phones."

The application was ported to the HTC Touch Pro, which does not require the use of an external microphone, allowing the application to run properly. The hardware includes 288 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM, and a resistive 480x640 pixel touch screen. Thomson used the C# programming language to port Amplitude.

“What I’m finding is that it’s harder to mess up with C# than in Objective-C, which is used for iPhone application development," Thompson told Microsoft. "This makes any extra effort needed to customize the classes I want worthwhile."

Microsoft said porting programs from the iPhone's Objective-C to C# is relatively painless, because both are Java-like languages. The technical document concludes that iPhone developers can increase their revenue by offering their software to millions of Windows Mobile users.

"The large development community, both within Microsoft and outside, and the various whitepapers, blogs, virtual labs, websites, and other online documentation, offered a wealth of information that provided direction and greatly facilitated problem resolution," the document reads. "The only real challenge was assuring total portability between screens, and that was assured by utilizing the concept of aspect ratios. Now that Amplitude has been ported, Gripwire has an application that runs on a wide variety of devices that run the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system and can reach a larger number of users."

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[dasein]

I'm betting there are 1,048 pages of fine print on this.

[jsmythe00]

Originally Posted by dasein

I'm betting there are 1,048 pages of fine print on this.

lol...that's funny. I'm curious as to possible hardware issues. The application works on win 6.5 but does it matter and will it work if its on an HTC vs motorola vs LG? Anyone, anyone?

[jetset]

WinMo stinks. There is no amount of apps written in c# that can save them from steaming turd that they are. I have a Treo Pro from my job I know why they make a big deal out of a removable battery...because you have to remove it twice a day because this thing locks up hard.

[kotatsu]

With the way Apple have been behaving of late, with anti-consumer rejection of apps like Google Voice, we NEED strong competition. We need MS, Google, Palm, and anyone else up the challenge to force Apple to change their ways. Good as the iPhone is, Apple seem hell bent on allienating their customers.

[magicj]

I don't think they'll be a whole lot of folks porting iPhone apps to Windows Mobile.

There's only one thing worse than using a PoS OS like Windows. That's using a PoS OS with a small market share like Windows Mobile.

[Abster2core]

Originally Posted by kotatsu

With the way Apple have been behaving of late, with anti-consumer rejection of apps like Google Voice, we NEED strong competition. We need MS, Google, Palm, and anyone else up the challenge to force Apple to change their ways. Good as the iPhone is, Apple seem hell bent on allienating their customers.

What? From the couple of handfuls here and everywhere else who, in the majority of cases, invariably have nothing good to say or don't have an iPhone in the first place to use them on.

[ajmas]

Market share is not an issue to me. What does matter to me is the user experience, and so far WinMobile hasn't really done it for me - IMHO, it just feels clunky. If anything were to take me away from Apple's handheld OS it is more likely to be Android.

The only thing that Apple could do is allow third parties to sell outside of the 'app store', so that anything they don't want to be seen accepting can still be installed.

[danbirchall]

I think you meant the company official said it "will have" a superior browser. he was referring to Windows Mobile 6.5, which will allegedly be on a Motorola phone real soon now, like maybe next month.

[magicj]

Originally Posted by ajmas

If anything were to take me away from Apple's handheld OS it is more likely to be Android.

Probably true.

But the problem with these other platforms is you have to support multiple hardware configurations. Many iPhone developers are very small shops that just don't have the resources to do that.

I'm currently developing an iPhone app. Most of it is written in C++ and is very portable. But there's no way I'm going to port it to _any_ platform that has a small market share _and_ requires me to support multiple hardware platforms.

[Maestro64]

He never mention how many times Windows Mobile will crash while using it. I have Moto Q for work and I have nothing installed on it other than the standard apps from MS. MS Mobile just hangs for no reason and you to pull the battery most time to clear the issue.

Also, he does not mention that most developer are developing for the iphone since it is easy to support. Problem with MS mobile is all the various platforms and various version of MS Mobile. Developer are not interesting in supporting all these platform with little return and lots of headaches

[Cisco_Kid]

Also I think worth noting most of these Windows based phones will be missing accelerometers and proximity sensors.


I agree with most on here, it's probably going to crash the phone or you will constantly be in the Mobile Task Manager to keep your clunky phone working.

[Quadra 610]

The problem with Windows Mobile is essentially the probelm with Windows:

It runs on countless devices, which amounts to a staggered, variable user experience, completely out of Microsoft's control. There are other issues, such as MS not knowing how to design UIs, but that's a different matter.

[stokessd]

The 32 windows mobile users cheered loudly...

[cozagada]

If you write in C#, the hardware should be abstracted, as in .NET, so the same code can run on different hardware.

[breeze]

Originally Posted by Cisco_Kid

Also I think worth noting most of these Windows based phones will be missing accelerometers and proximity sensors.
I agree with most on here, it's probably going to crash the phone or you will constantly be in the Mobile Task Manager to keep your clunky phone working.

This Microsssssoft illusion (or rather delusion) just shows how they have no understanding whatsoever, of what a milestone in technology and hardware the iPhone is, nor for that matter what it really takes to write and support good software.

They don't have a clue and the many different hardware iterations limitations, lack of uniformity and sloppy integration in the phone markets, due to competing cost and budget restraints....will no doubt make this another MS fiasco. Balmer- you are the biggest idiot in technology.

[Morky]

I've always maintained that Apple should develop not just a document, but an entire department for helping developers port Windows desktop programs to the Mac platform. This is a smart thing Microsoft is doing, and Apple should embrace and extend this idea to the desktop if they want to continue building market share at their current rate.

[kscottmyers]

"You'll see our browsing experience gets dramatically better"

And just how is it better? Kind of vague isn't it?

[chronster]

Originally Posted by jetset

WinMo stinks. There is no amount of apps written in c# that can save them from steaming turd that they are. I have a Treo Pro from my job I know why they make a big deal out of a removable battery...because you have to remove it twice a day because this thing locks up hard.

Try doing a hard reset. In other words, find the instructions to get back to stock, then go from there.

Sometimes phones like these will run into issues like these off the assembly line. For whatever reason, reflashing the rom to whatever's on it's internal memory fixes a lot of these issues.

When I first got my touch pro, the volume was way too low. I did a hard reset and not only was the sound MUCH better, the entire device felt snappier.

Incidentally my phone never locks up.

Originally Posted by magicj

I don't think they'll be a whole lot of folks porting iPhone apps to Windows Mobile.

There's only one thing worse than using a PoS OS like Windows. That's using a PoS OS with a small market share like Windows Mobile.

Why wouldn't they? It's more business for them.

And think of it this way, if you can port it one way, you'll be able to port it the other direction. The fact that MS showed people how easy it is to do this is a GOOD thing for both iphone users and winMo users alike.

Originally Posted by Maestro64

He never mention how many times Windows Mobile will crash while using it. I have Moto Q for work and I have nothing installed on it other than the standard apps from MS. MS Mobile just hangs for no reason and you to pull the battery most time to clear the issue.

Also, he does not mention that most developer are developing for the iphone since it is easy to support. Problem with MS mobile is all the various platforms and various version of MS Mobile. Developer are not interesting in supporting all these platform with little return and lots of headaches

Do like I told jetset above. I mean, after all, the same solution came from Apple for the overheating issue.

As far as supporting "all the versions" of WM: It's not as hard as you think. Some of the new stuff with 6.5 might not easily be backward compatible with 6.1 or 6.0, but what I've found is if it works on 6.1, it tends to work all the way back to 5.0. I've never had an issue running something designed for 5.0 on 6.1.

Originally Posted by Quadra 610

The problem with Windows Mobile is essentially the probelm with Windows:

It runs on countless devices, which amounts to a staggered, variable user experience, completely out of Microsoft's control. There are other issues, such as MS not knowing how to design UIs, but that's a different matter.

Nah, pretty much ever windows mobile phone feels clunky so the user experience is pretty much the same LOL

Honestly though, the differences between phones and the experiences ARE just like computers, where the newest ones are always faster and give a better experience.

[chronster]

Originally Posted by kscottmyers

"You'll see our browsing experience gets dramatically better"

And just how is it better? Kind of vague isn't it?

It'll have IE8's java engine, render PNG alpha channel graphics, and support flash

Originally Posted by breeze

This Microsssssoft illusion (or rather delusion) just shows how they have no understanding whatsoever, of what a milestone in technology and hardware the iPhone is, nor for that matter what it really takes to write and support good software.

They don't have a clue and the many different hardware iterations limitations, lack of uniformity and sloppy integration in the phone markets, due to competing cost and budget restraints....will no doubt make this another MS fiasco. Balmer- you are the biggest idiot in technology.

Really, no offense, but it sounds to me like it's you who doesn't have a clue. Sorry.

[Virgil-TB2]

What they really fail to mention (as does this article on it), is that this Amplitude "app" is the simplest thing in the world, and more of a "hello world" app than a Super Monkey Ball app. Even then the directions on different hardware support is complex stuff.

This app doesn't do anything cool, doesn't use open GL, doesn't use the accelerometer etc. etc. etc. Try porting anything cool or useful and you'll see how easy it isn't.

[jetset]

Originally Posted by Maestro64

He never mention how many times Windows Mobile will crash while using it. I have Moto Q for work and I have nothing installed on it other than the standard apps from MS. MS Mobile just hangs for no reason and you to pull the battery most time to clear the issue.

Also, he does not mention that most developer are developing for the iphone since it is easy to support. Problem with MS mobile is all the various platforms and various version of MS Mobile. Developer are not interesting in supporting all these platform with little return and lots of headaches

WinMo is broken and needs to be scrapped, rewritten and overhauled. I've never EVER had a WinMo device that was decent as iPhone. I don't think iPhon devs want to touch WinMo..because it's not fun. It's stodgey, dusty and the people who use it does not choose it..it's usually given to them like my Treo Pro... The phone is nice, the OS is hot garbage.

[bloggerblog]

Microsoft... Superior Web-browser?!!!!

[chronster]

Originally Posted by jetset

WinMo is broken and needs to be scrapped, rewritten and overhauled. I've never EVER had a WinMo device that was decent as iPhone. I don't think iPhon devs want to touch WinMo..because it's not fun. It's stodgey, dusty and the people who use it does not choose it..it's usually given to them like my Treo Pro... The phone is nice, the OS is hot garbage.

Actually a lot of people CHOOSE to use a windows mobile phone on their own accord. They like being able to CHOOSE things on their own, where as with the iphone, Apple CHOOSES which apps are too naughty for your wittle eyes.

The iphone is nice, but there are countless people that will attest their love for windows mobile who have COME FROM the iphone.

This discussion will head into a windows mobile vs iphone direction, I can feel it.

[Quadra 610]

Originally Posted by jetset

WinMo is broken and needs to be scrapped, rewritten and overhauled. I've never EVER had a WinMo device that was decent as iPhone. I don't think iPhon devs want to touch WinMo..because it's not fun. It's stodgey, dusty and the people who use it does not choose it..it's usually given to them like my Treo Pro... The phone is nice, the OS is hot garbage.

Microsoft doesn't know the meaning of "scrapped, rewritten and ovrhauled." A lot of their products could use that sort of treatment, particularly Windows, but there's not even a shred of originality in Redmond, so you won't find anything compelling, innovative, or even radical, with respects to to departing from the norm or rolling out something that inspires the rest of the industry to follow suit.

When, as a CEO (Ballmer) you spend half your time defending yourself and your operation against questions about why you're being upstaged, year after year, by a much smaller, nimbler, more focused competitor with half your resources, half your manpower, and half your global reach, something is horribly, horribly wrong.

And now MS is actively, openly, attempting to leech off the Apple developer community by capitlizing on the success of the iPhone because in all this time, for years now, they have been unable to come up with a platform (with all their manpower and resources) that can equal what Apple has rolled out almost overnight, in terms of elegance, robustness, and desirability.

MS has lost its edge. It has the resources to do great things, but isn't doing them. It's all inertia and the hope that ignorant users will continue to use thier products.

[Quadra 610]

Originally Posted by bloggerblog

Microsoft... Superior Web-browser?!!!!

+1000

I think even the most technically ignorant would find comedy in this.

[chronster]

Originally Posted by bloggerblog

Microsoft... Superior Web-browser?!!!!

still looks clunky, but if it supports flash then that'll be cool

http://intruders.tv/inqtv/2009/07/31...s-walkthrough/ 6 minutes in shows the browser but doesn't show flash or anything. at 9 minutes in he shows flash

[Quadra 610]

Originally Posted by chronster

still looks clunky, but if it supports flash then that'll be cool

http://intruders.tv/inqtv/2009/07/31...s-walkthrough/ 6 minutes in shows the browser but doesn't show flash or anything.

At 6:35 he basically explains why it's shit and why it will probably stay like that. Exactly the problem I mentioned in my earlier post.

[UnexpectedBill]

Originally Posted by Quadra 610

It runs on countless devices, which amounts to a staggered, variable user experience, completely out of Microsoft's control. There are other issues, such as MS not knowing how to design UIs, but that's a different matter.

I think that is definitely true. Every WinCE/Windows Mobile device I ever had came with a lot of manufacturer specific utilities, some better than others. A lot of the hardware itself, though, seems to be about the same across many devices.

I actually liked the first generation UI that Windows CE had in versions 2.x and earlier. Then they had to ruin everything with the UI that debuted in 3.0 and is still there today.

- - - -

What ultimately drove me away from Windows Mobile was the awful upgrade policy from Microsoft. Microsoft left it to the OEMs as to whether or not devices could ever be upgraded to a new version of the OS. This isn't a sensible move when the majority of the devices can be easily updated because they have flashable ROMs. In some cases--as with my HP Jornada 680--that wasn't a problem. The device worked then and it continues to work now. A Toshiba E740 on the other hand--that was a disastrously bad device. It shipped with a version of Windows Mobile that was barely able to run on its new XScale CPU and Toshiba basically said "oh well buy a new device we are not going to release a new, working OS for this one". (Some few people who complained got a new device given to them, but still...)

I've been very impressed with the way that Apple has continued to update their mobile operating system for all of the iPhone/iPod Touch devices.

I did think Windows Mobile was pretty cool when it first appeared. As I used it, though, I began to realize how so much about it could have been done better.

[chronster]

Originally Posted by Quadra 610

+1000

I think even the most technically ignorant would find comedy in this.

you like to throw that word around a lot don't you? ignorant...

[chronster]

Originally Posted by UnexpectedBill

I've been very impressed with the way that Apple has continued to update their mobile operating system for all of the iPhone/iPod Touch devices.

I did think Windows Mobile was pretty cool when it first appeared. As I used it, though, I began to realize how so much about it could have been done better.

If I was allowed to do what I wanted on an iphone like I can on a windows mobile phone, I'd have an iphone. Navigating through my phone can feel clunky at times, but it always does what I want it to do. I'm never told I can't run something because Microsoft says it's not ok.

[doyourownthing]

Originally Posted by Quadra 610

Microsoft doesn't know the meaning of "scrapped, rewritten and ovrhauled." A lot of their products could use that sort of treatment, particularly Windows, but there's not even a shred of originality in Redmond, so you won't find anything compelling, innovative, or even radical, with respects to to departing from the norm or rolling out something that inspires the rest of the industry to follow suit.

When, as a CEO (Ballmer) you spend half your time defending yourself and your operation against questions about why you're being upstaged, year after year, by a much smaller, nimbler, more focused competitor with half your resources, half your manpower, and half your global reach, something is horribly, horribly wrong.

And now MS is actively, openly, attempting to leech off the Apple developer community by capitlizing on the success of the iPhone because in all this time, for years now, they have been unable to come up with a platform (with all their manpower and resources) that can equal what Apple has rolled out almost overnight, in terms of elegance, robustness, and desirability.

MS has lost its edge. It has the resources to do great things, but isn't doing them. It's all inertia and the hope that ignorant users will continue to use thier products.

I feel the same way, micro$oft is plain pathetic

you would think that after windows 3.0 they had time to write a new operating system from scratch that doesn't crash, with a new GUI, but they cannot do that...they put their money on sales apparently and not so much on r&d

windows is still a hot-mess gui sitting on top of a tired and sad DOS

how much does it cost to hire someone to redesign a new gui? why can't they do that? instead of ripping off apple

they are idiots with too much money, like this ape ballmer

and by the way windows mobile is terrible. i doubt anyone from iphone like i'm reading here is going to windows mobile unless they don't have a choice. it's almost as pathetic as the desktop windows "experience". it's slow, it crashes...

[darwiniandude]

I'll say straight up that I'm an Apple guy now and am over my Windows days. Having said this, I'm scared about Microsoft's future relevance.

Windows Mobile 6.5? It still isn't out? Bloody hell. They've been so busy tidying up Vista, polishing it into Windows 7, making the dock err taskbar work nicely, that they've MISSED THE POINT: the desktop is DEAD. Been predicted for 15 years, but mobile computing is the future call it phones netbooks cloud whatever, but the big desktop OS is on the way out, look at where we are compared to just 10 years ago.

My point is that Microsoft is fighting an irrelevant battle with Windows 7, it's good enough. Release it FREE to Vista owners as a gesture of goodfaith, give coupons make people love em, etc. Corporate sales will sustain MS regardless, but make the consumers happy. Do monthly windows ultimate extras updates video wallpapers ANYTHING just don't waste time coding on this.

Microsoft must fix / replace Windows Mobile, or they're screwed. They're living in a dream world if they can't see this, hopefully they have a secret area where they're rapidly implementing an ARM based WinMO with Windows GUI but a fresh start, but I doubt it.

What is Redmond up to? Do they think they can't fail?

Anyway, enough rant from me.

Port to Windows? Why should they announce this? Any coders worth their variables will know that some code is easy port, some hard or impossible and will have to be written from scratch, won't support all devices, no gaming performance etc. So why advertise it? You might get a few more programmers, but that's it. A lot of iPhone devs have left WinMO to write for the AppStore. Microsoft is rolling in cash, make your MSTORE, and give $50000USD to the developers of the 10 most popular Apps in 6 months time. Make TV spots, put TV tuners in all Windows Mobile phones in hardware, do things Apple wouldn't. Don't just accept you're inferior, Microsoft... At least try to win this!!

Browse more websites? Huh?
Sure there is flash to power your advertisments on Windows Mobile, but all I know is that with intergrated graphics, IE8 under windows 7 scrolls up and down jumpily and jerkily for me. Safari 4 under windows 7 on the same machine is silky and instant. If IE is slower to render and scroll on Windows 7 than Safari, then Microsoft has no tallent left to make a good mobile browser.

[BuzDots]

Lately it seems more and more as if the spokesperson for Microsoft (Balmer, Bach or whomever) sounds like a used car salesman.

Peachy condition, only driven on Sundays - we will even put some new rubber on it, if you buy it today.

DAMN, maybe that's it! They just need to put a rubber on all their products so nothing else gets contaminated! (crap, I even forgot about Balmer's squirts)

What's it gonna take for me to earn your business?

[chronster]

Originally Posted by Quadra 610

At 6:35 he basically explains why it's shit and why it will probably stay like that. Exactly the problem I mentioned in my earlier post.

Right. Well, people with that browser will be playing flash games and watching hulu while Apple will be telling adobe to piss off. It's gonna be THE shit.

[anonymouse]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Microsoft said porting programs from the iPhone's Objective-C to C# is relatively painless, because both are Java-like languages.

Well, due to lack of experience with it, I won't comment on how "Java-like" C# is, but I do think it would be more correct to say that Java is Objective-C-like:

http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~sean/stuff/java-objc.html

[scotty321]

Microsoft is pathetic.

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by scotty321

Microsoft is pathetic.

Those bastahds!

[Virgil-TB2]

Originally Posted by chronster

Right. Well, people with that browser will be playing flash games ....

People keep saying this over and over about Flash games but it's pure BS if you look at the stats.

In the first place, Flash games are on the way out in that their audience consists primarily of "stay at home" oldies playing video poker or some BoxerJam junk. They are the 2000's equivalent of the old geezer playing solitaire on his Windows 95 computer in the 1990's. This kind of crap is also being quickly replaced by mobile devices that do the same thing.

Secondly, the "casual gaming" platform is moving to the TV and to the mobile. In a few years if there are people who don't have some kind of smartphone in their pocket that can play more and better games than any flash crap they can find on the web today, they will be a distinct minority. if there is a living room that doesn't have some kind of PS3/AppleTV/Wii hooked up to it they also will be in a minority. TV's themselves are already network enabled and will probably play the same kind of games you can get on the iPhone today all by themselves.

Flash games are a joke, and are basically doomed. They are pretty much the very first victim of the emerging new platform.

[dev012]

Originally Posted by magicj

There's only one thing worse than using a PoS OS like Windows. That's using a PoS OS with a small market share like Windows Mobile.

You do realize that WinMo has a much larger market share than the iPhone OS right? The iPhone OS is growing at a faster rate and it dominates the web traffic category, but WinMo is still crushing it in overall market share.

I'm not a M$ fanboy and I have an iPhone 3GS, but ignoring the true market share numbers is just stupid.