App future status for Lumia 900/other devices pre WP8

[bradtech]

Wife and I just got the phones Lumia 900 Cyan/White upon release.. She had an iPhone 4 (we still have it) and I had a HTC HD7 Pro on US Cellular. We both love the phones outside of some apps that she used not being as good as on ios.. I'm not bashing Microsoft for not including Apollo on Lumia 900s, Titan 2s et all..

My only concern is with the future of app development on these phones. I know on some android devices apps simply just don't show up if your phone does not meet the hardware requirements.. But you still have access to the same basic app upgrades or simple apps that don't require the hardware specifications dual cpu etc..

I have read online for reviews and trying to figure out if they are going to totally fork over to an entirely different marketplace that we won't have access to, or will it be the same marketplace for WP 7.8 and WP8 apps but we just won't see the kiddo games requiring dual cpu, newer gpu games, NFC apps etc..

I really hope we don't become a sideshow marketplace like what happened with Windows Mobile 6.5 and prior. With very little updates to basic simple apps like pinspiration, facebook, twitter apps, and whatever new services spring up in the next 22 months.. If that is going to happen then we'll just reactive iPhone 4, and sell these phones for a 4s or HTC One x. The fact we are getting resizable tiles means nothing to me if it's a forked marketplace left with people trapped into old windows phones that will be bailing in 1-2 years, not making up enough marketshare for anyone to care to develop for it when WP8 is the hot thing.

 

[eastbayrae]

There's not enough topics on this already so we need another?

 

[bradtech]

There's not enough topics on this already so we need another?

What else is there to talk about other than questions regarding the news revealed? Ive read through topics on this forum and some other places.. I keep seeing "WP8 apps won't work on WP7.8".. It does not get specific.

 

[vp710]

There.

Why is it so hard to understand? I'm just going to copy paste this as I'm tired of explaining it: WP8 will come out in 6 months. It will take AT LEAST 6 months to a year for WP8 to have a userbase significant enough that a developer would consider writing an app without WP7 support. Even then, WP7.8 and WP8 apps share 90% of their codes. What do you think Android devs do regarding the 3 or 4 different OSes + tablets? Just write one version of their apps supported by the newest platform? I don't think so.

You WILL get new apps for at least the following 2 years. You may not be able to install the more power hungry games, or NFC related apps but that's it. On top of that, as long as we don't know what exactly is coming to WP7.8, there's NO reason to complain about it.

 

[jimski]

Just using my crystal ball here. Nearly two thirds of the apps in Marketplace have (probably) never been updated, or have not been in a very long time. They will all remain WP7.8 compatible. Of the rest, only a very small percentage will make significant changes to take advantage of; NFC, multi-cores or resolution. So the rest will again remain compatible, even through future updates. Newly developed apps; not sure. Guess the smart thing to do will be to develop for the newest OS, but that leaves a bunch of potential customers behind. Don't know if you will see two versions, or a way to detect the OS version at download.

In any case, I think it will be at least a year (from now) before you start to feel any effect from this change. And at some point MS will require that all developers bring their apps up to speed, sort of like what they did with the "upgrade to Mango or else" dictate.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express Pro

 

[bradtech]

Yeah, my main concern going forward would be new apps that don't necessary need the multicores not seeing the light of day on WP7.7 devices. Better apps for twitter etc.. I don't know that I see a massive influx of WP8 users that outpaces the existing WP 7.7 base to warrant never developing for both platforms to make it worthwhile. I would think they wouldn't fork the marketplaces off if they say all Apps with WP7 devices will be there for WP8 devices on day one. Hopefully it's not a WP 6.5 to 7.0 type of change.

Just using my crystal ball here. Nearly two thirds of the apps in Marketplace have (probably) never been updated, or have not been in a very long time. They will all remain WP7.8 compatible. Of the rest, only a very small percentage will make significant changes to take advantage of; NFC, multi-cores or resolution. So the rest will again remain compatible, even through future updates. Newly developed apps; not sure. Guess the smart thing to do will be to develop for the newest OS, but that leaves a bunch of potential customers behind. Don't know if you will see two versions, or a way to detect the OS version at download.

In any case, I think it will be at least a year (from now) before you start to feel any effect from this change. And at some point MS will require that all developers bring their apps up to speed, sort of like what they did with the "upgrade to Mango or else" dictate.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express Pro

 

[Mystictrust]

Having watched the presentation, and as a future WP developer myself (having only made simple apps with text and buttons), how is it that 7.8 won't be able to use apps made for 8? Microsoft put in the presentation that they recommend C# for non-gaming apps, while C++ is recommended for games. So if WP8 apps can still be written in C#, wouldn't they work on WP7.8 still? Or am I misunderstanding what native code is?

I realize that the WP Dev tools made someone choose between 7 and 7.5 when Mango first came out, and I imagine it would be the same for WP8 - but if a dev doesn't use any of the new APIs and doesn't use something connected to the new hardware, then wouldn't it still technically work on 7.8? o.0

And why don't I remember much talk of APIs at this dev summit btw?

*My apologies if this has been answered somewhere before...