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All You Need To Know About Windows Phone 7 Apps
However even though it’s apparent that the WP7 handsets are great pieces of hardware, from the standards set by competitors iOS4 and Android it’s clear that the success or failure of a modern smartphone OS depends on the strength of its apps. What apps will come preinstalled? You can expect WP7 to come ready with the basics for smartphones – calendar, email and browser. Microsoft is also emphasising its integration with social networking and the OS’s reception of steady updates from Twitter and Facebook. There are a couple of nice features look out for too – small things like being able to collectively email a group meeting from your calendar app with a message if you are running late. Rather than being dumped in a mixed grid system, Windows Phone 7 devices such as the HTC Mozart will arrange apps into their correct ‘hub’ areas. Microsoft hops this will make apps easier to find, with photo apps in the photo hub and music apps in the music hub and favourites on the home screen. Will third party apps be available? Third party apps are definitely available. The platform already has plenty of support from leading software companies. These will be offered from the Windows Phones Marketplace. Tell me about Marketplace. Like Apple’s App Store, Marketplace is the gateway to all apps available for your phone. Microsoft has promised to do its best to organise the store for easy perusing and will be highlighting new apps on a daily basis to keep you up to date. However, with 150 000 apps available for the iPhone 4 and 30 000 for Android the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace does certainly have some catching up to do. Microsoft is encouraging development by offering app development tools for free with developers only paying $99 when they decide to publish in the Marketplace. They’ve also been keen to demonstrate how easy the OS is to develop for, showing onstage that a basic Twitter app could be put together in under ten minutes. Will I be able to get all my favourite apps there? • Twitter and Facebook Twitter has built its own app for Windows Phone 7 to specifically suit the user interface. It will support multiple accounts and let you browse through tweets without signing or being a Twitter user in the first place. Full Facebook integration with your contacts list will be standard. • Spotify The makers of the wildly popular music streaming service have confirmed it will soon be available on WP7, meaning you can listen to millions of tracks streamed over your Wi-Fi connection. If you know you’re not going to get a connection – on a plane or underground – you can even download playlists. To use it on your phone though you’ll need a premium account and with Microsoft’s Zune streaming platform preinstalled free, there will definitely be some users who will switch. • Ebay The world’s largest online marketplace will let you search, bid, buy and monitor your selling activity via your phone with an app available on launch day. • Seesmic Seesmic is growing in popularity as a handy app that congregates all your social networking activity in one place, letting you comment on photos, update status and more across several accounts. • Others With Associated Press and Electronic Arts on board we will also be seeing a news app and plenty of games respectively. What is absent so far though is Skype for cheap VoIP calls, Mozilla Firefox, game sensation Angry Birds and the popular Polaroid app Hipstamatic. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Pandora Devine is a freelance tech journalist and has been following the developments to Windows Phone 7 for over a year. She wrote this article originally on behalf of Orange UK. |
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