[colinkiama]

I made a post already. I want the moderators to move it to the 8.1 forums because it's more relevant to 8.1 apps.

Windows Phone relies too heavily on the market share of windows 8. Especially since the SDK is limited to computers running windows 8 and you know bad of a reputation windows 8 got. So there aren't going to be many developers for windows phone because even if they do consider they have to go through the process of updating to windows 8 first.

iOS is not suffering from this because they were first successful in getting developers to develop apps for iOS. And there was nothing like the App Store at the time. Despite the fact that you require a Mac(which has less marketshare than windows)

Android has the most apps since you can develop on probably anything. From windows, mac, Linux. Anyone can make an android app.

Windows 10 is looking good so far and is probably going to be replacing the windows 7 computers, meaning that the users upgrading are potential developers. But why wait till then. Microsoft should just release the windows phone 8/8.1 sdk now for windows 7, and since most are on it already. Developers are more likely to consider developing. Then in windows 10 they can turn the 8.1 apps into universal apps. A win for windows phone and windows RT/PCs

[HoosierDaddy]

Do you know why Hyper-V support is required? I can't think of any reason unless its so the app can be tested in a virtual phone. If so, that would seem like an advantage over an environment where you have to load an app into an actual phone over and over while getting the initial bugs out. Obviously requiring Hyper V would keep some developers away especially ones not sure if they want to get serious about Windows for phones but would improve the quality of apps and reduce the cost to develop an app that will have a lot of users.

I can see your point and agree that it is a barrier for first time developers, especially. So am curious just why MS has that requirement. Is it to support virtual phones for testing or is it just baggage that came along with the PC app development environment, or something else entirely?

[colinkiama]

Do you know why Hyper-V support is required? I can't think of any reason unless its so the app can be tested in a virtual phone. If so, that would seem like an advantage over an environment where you have to load an app into an actual phone over and over while getting the initial bugs out. Obviously requiring Hyper V would keep some developers away especially ones not sure if they want to get serious about Windows for phones but would improve the quality of apps and reduce the cost to develop an app that will have a lot of users.

I can see your point and agree that it is a barrier for first time developers, especially. So am curious just why MS has that requirement. Is it to support virtual phones for testing or is it just baggage that came along with the PC app development environment, or something else entirely?

Oh I wasn't complaining about hyper-V, just stating the requirement. I was complaining about the OS requirement, I'll edit that now