Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 Metro App Ecosystem Set to Grow

23.06.2012

"That momentum [of growth] is indicative of the power of our ecosystem and the power of our skill at building out and focusing on the developer audience," says Larry Lieberman, senior product manager at Microsoft. He expects this week's announcements will make development for Windows Phone much more attractive. "This is huge in terms of what it will do to unblock and leverage a single set of code assets to target multiple operating systems, particularly Windows 8 and Windows Phone," Lieberman adds.

First Microsoft needs to build up its Windows 8 Metro apps library, and quickly. Metro apps will run on Surface for Windows RT, the tablet targeted at the more mainstream audience and Microsoft's lure for those considering an iOS or Android tablet.

Windows Phone 8 also needs apps to show off its capabilities and to sway wary consumers who may already be committed to Android or iOS -- or may even be buying their first smartphone -- that Windows 8 is the way to go. It's compelling for developers to have a way to create apps that run across the millions of expected Windows 8 desktops and laptops, and then to leverage that code to quickly create apps for tablets and phones, too. Microsoft hopes this will spur development, and we do too. The , but if no compelling apps ship for Windows RT, consumers won't considier these tablets as a viable alternative to Android or iOS.

Unfortunately, Lieberman admits that another holy grail -- the capability to run a single app across multiple platforms -- won't be ready with the first release of Windows Phone 8. "We do believe that is a compelling goal that we would like to get to," he says. "It is something we want to figure out how to get to as quickly as we can."

Mobile development has been a fractured mess for years. When app developers can easily scale across platforms, we come closer to the ideal of write once, publish many. Logically, that means we'll have more apps -- and sooner -- across both mobile and desktop platforms. That's exactly what the nascent Windows 8 Metro app ecosystem needs.