Corona and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7?

Posted by Carlos Icaza

It is no secret that, here at Ansca, we are looking at what our next mobile platform should be for Corona — and this should not come to a surprise to anyone, especially in this fast-moving mobile industry.

While Apple iOS and Google Android have captured the minds and market as the two top mobile platforms, who is on third? Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 (WP7)? Palm OS? RIM? Samsung’s Bada? Symbian? Meego?

Several weeks ago, weeks prior to the WP 7 launch, I met with Brian H. from Microsoft to discuss Corona and WP7. He was very excited to discuss WP7 and Corona and to show me the features of his WP7. It was literally watching a kid play with the toy he has dreamed of all his life, and that he finally got to hold it in his hands.

After he finally wound down and I got to play with the phone, on which it was clearly engraved “Property of Microsoft”, and having heard all the things about WP7 — Microsoft not getting it right, a day late and a dollar short, etc. — I must admit, I was impressed with the test unit. The UI is flawless, and operational wise, the features works as you would have expected if not more.

I was impressed. I think Microsoft got it right. Obviously, there is no question that they are showing up late at the party, and this that and the other, but when I first walked out of Microsoft, I was frustrated because I couldn’t tell the world I had just come out of a meeting with Microsoft and got to play with a pre-production WP7 phone and that I thought they got it right.

There is always room for a third OS. Just like in desktop computing you have Windows, OS-X and Linux, the mobile market could end up  with iOS, Android and WP7 as the top three mobile OS’s. Who knows who will be on third, or for that matter, first or second — this mobile world moves fast.

And, to be honest, describing the experience via a blog would give no justice to actually playing with the device. If you get a chance, go out and play with the unit. You will be impressed. I was. The user experience is fluid. Admittedly, the unit I got to play with didn’t have that many apps, but what the apps I played with, they were responsive, fast, smooth, and “instant.”

After all the noise of the WP7 launch of Monday, I reached out to Brian to continue our dialog and again, to let me play with a real non-production/non-engraved WP7. I met with him today and, since the cat is out of the bag, you can see some not-so-clean pictures below of the Windows Phone I got to play with today.

I want to remind you, we have made no official announcement or commitment to add WP7 support in Corona, but I have to admit, the way Microsoft has been with us, very open, approachable, and inquisitive about the Corona platform says a lot about their commitment to get WP7 in as many hands as possible and understand the developer community.  If we end up choosing WP7 (* hey Brian, send me a bunch of WP7 devices for the engineers!) or any of the other platforms, it could only mean one thing for you, our developers, more ways to distribute and monetize your Corona-based games.

Lastly, thank you Brian H. and to Microsoft for their candid discussions with us.

— Carlos

My own shots of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 (click for larger image)