
Microsoft courts webOS developers; 1,000 make the leap - Flemlord
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/08/microsoft-courts-webos-developers-over-1000-make-the-leap.ars
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jefflinwood
I don't think I'd describe this as "making the leap" - I have a published
TouchPad app, and I was curious about the upcoming Mango/WP7.5, so I emailed
about the WebOS->Windows offer - basically, I got an email back with a list of
resources to explore to build a Windows Phone app. Not sure what the followup
is going to be.

There's nothing really free about it - my dev environment is OS X, so I'd have
to get a copy of Windows 7 ($100 from Amazon), install it in Parallels for the
Mac ($60), join Microsoft's AppHub ($99/year), all to get (maybe) a free WP7
phone.

Also, from what I can tell, there's zero overlap between WebOS and Windows
Phone 7 development, so all these WebOS devs would be starting from scratch.

Frankly, I'm kind of surprised that Google's Android dev relations team didn't
make a similar offer.

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jefflinwood
Oh, as a point of reference, developing and releasing apps for WebOS
3/TouchPad cost nothing, and the development environment ran on Linux, OS X,
and Windows - basically, it's a collection of command line utilities, WebOS 3
running in a VirtualBox, and Google Chrome.

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aaront
"leap"? I think us webOS devs just wanted free hardware to expand our apps
beyond webOS, but many still remain (especially in light of all the people
with webOS devices over the weekend).

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rbanffy
I'd like to check WP7, but I am certainly not buying another phone for that -
other platforms already take most of my time. Palm had to be very aggressive
in getting phones in the hands of developers because most of them were already
fully allocated to iOS and Android. Microsoft has more or less the same
problem, with the difference WebOS was exciting and new, while WP7 feels like
developing for Windows. For the same market share, I'd go for exciting and
new.

I strongly advise they be much more aggressive than Palm was. Developing for
Microsoft platforms is a business decision, not a privilege.

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r00fus
Wonder how many will be on WP7 in 6 months? I wonder what contract (if any)
was required?

Still, if I were a WebOS dev (focused on phone not tablet stuff), and someone
offered me free hardware, I'd jump.

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pagekalisedown
There's a lot of costs attached to developing for a platform. Hardware is
generally a small fraction of it.

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r00fus
True, but in this case, the platform in question (WebOS) is disintegrating...
someone offers you safe sanctuary while you reconsider your options... why
not?

It will be interesting to see what comes of this.

~~~
rbanffy
> why not?

Why tie resources to develop for WP7 and not invest in iOS and Android? Most
probably, Palm developers were either already investing in the two market
leaders and porting to WebOS or going with WebOS just for fun (it _is_ fun to
write code for WebOS)

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rbanffy
WebOS was fun to develop for (HTML and JavaScript!), but had only 1% of the
market. WP7 looks more like the two market leaders (as in "less fun") but has
about 3% of the market. Looks like an improvement.

I'd say it's worth a try, but, so far, Microsoft hasn't made contact.

If you already have iOS and Android covered, WP7 is worth a shot, but I
wouldn't ignore RIM as a viable third player - their phones appear to be
making inroads into the low-end and that segment is huge.

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azakai
The latest global figures give WP7 1.6% of the market. Even Bada has more at
1.9%, and Bada is at least rising.

Serious WebOS devs would gladly take free stuff, but likely not bet on WP7.

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Steko
It's a good thing we didn't write off Android in mid 2009 when they had 2% of
the market.

Note: I'm not saying WP 7 will lead the world in 2 years. I am simply pointing
out that market share 2 quarters after your first device launches isn't the
best measure of future success.

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dragmorp_
The 7 means version 7 not 1. Just saying...

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jonknee
There have not been 7 versions of Windows Phone, it's the first version. The 7
is to tie it into the current release of Windows.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone>

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zinkem
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile>

~~~
jonknee
And? Windows Phone is not Windows Mobile. Much like webOS is not Palm OS.

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tiles
And so Microsoft learns the same lesson HP did: It's easy to get people to go
to your platform when you practically give hardware away.

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Gazk
They are only giving the hardware away to developers who have already
published an application in the store. I think its a pretty good decision by
MS as they are targeting developers who have at least shipped something. I
don't know if I would want to switch away from android/ios though. I don't
think MS will abandon the platform but I think they will end up abandoning
silverlight in the future.

~~~
tiles
The quality of published apps on WebOS is questionable (there are probably
both great and very poor developers out of those 1,000). What Microsoft is
telling people, in contrast to HP, is that they are not intending on
abandoning their phone strategy anytime soon, and are willing to go through
great lengths to woo developers over. At the same time, had this offer been
extended to iOS devs, they would've had a great response rate for hardware,
and it would still remain to be seen whether anyone would actually start
developing for Windows Phone.

This does add another way to analyze the hardware-ecosystem tradeoff that
people are considering with the Touchpad fire sale: what's the sweet spot for
burning money in order to build a thriving ecosystem?

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tmaly
I would make the leap too if they would support perl or python. the dynamic
languages get treated like second class citizens

