Windows Phone left on launchpad by Angry Birds in spaaace Rovio has shunned Windows Phone for the latest outing of the super-soaraway Angry Birds franchise, saying that it can't support every platform and has no plans to support that one. Angry Birds in Space is out for iOS (£1.99), Mac (£2.99), PC (£4.97) and Android (free but plastered with ads), but notably absent is a Windows …
Well, as an end user I have to say that the app store ("Marketplace") is a lot better than I expected. I mean there's plenty of stuff available, it certainly meets the quantity part.
The only issue is that you can never be sure how good an app is. And what troubles me a little is that I'm a little hesitant to install & remove apps because IMO you can never be sure that they perform a clean deinstallation.
This post has been deleted by its author
The core is written in C++. That's well known because it uses the open source Box2D framework, slightly controversially without giving any credit (short version: the licence doesn't require it; people think they should anyway as a courtesy).
Windows Phone 7 uses the Microsoft-invented C# and shuns any language not invented by Microsoft. For security reasons, we're told. All the other major and minor platforms can be targeted with C++ (including iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Bada...) so there's a significant extra cost in supporting them for a multi-platform title.
Quite probably the original port was subsidised and Rovio thought it worth the punt. As El Reg imply, they're probably otherwise aware that the time they have to milk the franchise is likely to be short and that decisions need to focus on the facts right now.
didn't want it anyway. Proper Skype integration at the phone/people hubs level now, tell me they'll never do that and I'll consider dumping the platform.
Wait - clarification. Tell me they'll never do that with reputable sources for your statement (Mikel, you bullshitter) and I'll consider dumping the platform.
I forsaw this as soon as I read that Microsoft insisted all apps be written in C#. Every other platform has a common denominator of C/C++. You can write your main code in C/C++, and then all you have to do is layer the platform specific stuff on top. Even Android, with it's focus on Java, has an NDK that lets you integrate C/C++.
But not Microsoft. They were too good for the plebs and their common languages. And, oh look, everyone is giving them the finger.
Windows 8 *might* help stem the tide, except for one teeny detail. It's not out yet, and won't be until fall (assuming nothing goes wrong). All these companies are just being smart by not wasting their limited resources on a clearly doomed platform. Especially one that insists you throw all your existing dev work out the window and do everything from scratch.
Clearly my comments we lost on you.
Nobody knows about Windows Phone for many reasons.
1/ nobody supports it
2/ nobody wants it
3/ it's got no apps
4/ the phones are like bad Android phones from 2009
5/ It's Microsoft
This is why it's failing so badly. Even Bada outsells it. Microsoft and Nokia can't even give them away through Neilson survey promos.
The problem for Microsoft is they have a phone Platform that they aim at the twitter / facebook generation with their adverts and their tight integration to social applications and the horrid bright colour schemes they force on people and then they also try and say "oh but it does a form of office so it's perfect for the enterprise"
They can't have it both ways they either aim their OS at the consumers or they aim it at businesses / enterprises. It seems to have an identity crisis and they are trying to be the jack of all trades and master of none
At least with Apple they aim it at the consumer market and if any businesses buy them then it's a bonus for Apple and that adds to their bottom line. Game developers know what they will get from Apple and Android, but you don't know what to get from Windows as they could pull the rug from under this or change direction any time
What with all the fuss about Windows 8, is the future of WP7 not a little uncertain? Do we yet know how Windows 8 will affect Windows Phone, whether it will replace it, compliment it, be merged with it, or whatever? I don't know, but I'm noty sure if thats because i haven't followed it, or because MS haven't said.
Either way, maybe this says more about what the developer think about what MS are going to do with the platform than whether or not the platform is a success or failure by any other measure...
As others have said, it's the native >> C# hurdle that is putting some dev's off. I had a brief conversation (ie twitter) with the developers of the F1 timing app about getting it on to WP7 and they said exactly the same. Their app is native c++ and they just don't have the resources to port on to a completely different platform that has nothing in common with their own code base.
If we are to believe the rumours that WP8 is going to allow 'some' native support, this can't come soon enough. The big fear though is that going native may not be open to small ISV's, but rather larger shops with bigger budgets.
Is nothing new, to those of us who recall the test for an acceptably IBM-PC compatible enterprise desktop. No good trying to get mgmt to consider a major-brand actually 16bit (8086, not 8088) machine with more memory and a faster clock, that could run all the official apps, for less money, than the beige-box from nowhere that could play Flight simulator.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
