Microsoft posts iPhone to Windows Phone 7 app migration tool
updated 03:05 pm EDT, Fri April 29, 2011
Microsoft intros iPhone to WP7 API mapping tool
Microsoft has quietly sought to lure over more iPhone developers to Windows Phone 7with a freshly published API Mapping tool. The utility helps iOS coders take a programming call from an app written for Apple's platform and translate it to the equivalent in WP7. The focus so far centers on porting interface, networking, and raw data controls.
Future versions will expand the reach to include media, graphics, security, and other frequently used elements, Microsoft said.
The strategy showed Microsoft more directly trying to court iOS developers. In the run-up to WP7's launch, Microsoft was paying iPhone developers for ports through revenue guarantees and other conditions to get them to port titles. Its new plan would ease the process of converting code itself and shorten the time to port a title over.
Some of the earlier efforts have borne fruit. Some of the best-known apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace are adaptations of iOS apps, while majors like Skype, Spotify, and even previous holdout Angry Birds have been promised once the upcoming Mango update allows them the hardware access they need. In spite of its small device market share, WP7 has about 15,000 apps, more than HP's webOS store and roughly tied with the much older BlackBerry App World.
TAGS :
iPhone, industry, gaming, Microsoft, developer, Skype, mobile phones, Apple, Spotify, Windows Phone
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2011
Fessing Up
Is MS finally admitting that their whole pathetic "Get In, Get Out, Get On With Your Life" campaign is just a pathetic spin on the idea that "We Have Nothing For You To Use Here, But Isn't That A Good Thing?"?