Comments on: Windows Phone MarketPlace Now Supporting Uploading Multiple Versions of Apps to Marketplace (OS Version Dependent)

By: hulkkii

hulkkii — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 07:39:44 +0000

In short:

* Windows Phone (C#,C++, Visual Studio etc.)
- I love them. I think wp sdk/visual studio offers the best ide, programming and debugging tools.
- APIs are much better now with WP8 compared to WP7, but still some restrictions and missing things. On the other hand restrictions mean better security.
- Apps are checked and tested manually by a person, before allowed to the marketplace.

* Android (Java,C++, eclipse etc)
- Tools are OK.
- There is almost nothing you can not do with the APIs of Android.
- Apps get published almost instantly to the play market. Nice, but bad for security.
- Hate the fragmentation. I have worked mainly with the camera APIs and fragmentation between different Android versions is not that bad, but different devices/manufacturers may act totally different with the same code. You just can not be sure if your app works on a specific device if you have not tested it with it..

* iOS:
- Hate the language, so don’t have that much experience.
- OK APIs
- OK Security

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:04:20 +0000

As hulkki says this has been there from the beginning.

What’s also been there from the beginning of WP8 is WP 7.5 apps automatically available in both WP 7.5 and WP 8.

I updated two of my apps during the holidays to add a trial version (3D Tic Tac Toe anybody? – http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=72a74d2d-10b7-4070-8358-5f48f358a9b8 ) and while I was doing that I considered producing specific WP 8 versions but decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

If this sounds lazy (for most XAML + C# apps like mine producing the WP 8 binaries is a matter of just a mouse click or two) it is because with 3 times as many resolutions to support you have to produce 3 times as many graphics for tiles and icons, etc. and this is a real pain for non-artistic people like me.

I suppose I will get round to it eventually but there are higher priority things in the meantime.

Except where I specifically want to take advantage of some WP 8 feature I will continue to develop apps for WP 7.5 for the simple reason that they will automatically be available for download by both WP 7.5 and WP 8 users. That would not be true if I developed a WP 8 app.

By: arts

arts — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:46:49 +0000

By: Viipottaja

Viipottaja — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:14:31 +0000

Hi, nice to see a real WP developer here! Would be great to hear more about your experience on it all. I am sure Jay would e.g. happy to publish an interview or a piece written by you!

By: hulkkii

hulkkii — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:40:13 +0000

This has been possible since the launch of WP8.
(I have published one app with different xaps for wp8 and wp7 last year after wp8 launch, and the system is still the same than it was then)

Now they are just tipping that it is possible.