First to answer the third question in our WP7 quiz challenge was Gergely Orosz (@gergelyorosz). Our short talk with Gergely will introduce him and his experience with WP7.
Q. Gergely – congratulations for becoming the third winner in SilverlightShow WP7 quiz! Please introduce yourself to the community at SilverlightShow - who are you, your professional background, projects you are currently working on, interests, blog or anything else you’d like to mention?
Thank you. I'm Gergely Orosz, living in Edinburgh, UK. I'm a .Net developer working at Scott Logic, one of the few financial consultancies outside of London. I'm doing Silverlight and WPF development as my day job and am an active member of the Scot Alt.Net group. I blog frequently, you can read my blog at http://gregdoesit.com/.
Q. Why did you get interested in WP7 development? What business opportunities you see in developing applications for WP7?
The low technical barrier to entry, the excellent user interface and the possibility of reusing existing .Net code were my main motivators on getting started with WP7 development. Anyone who's done a little WPF or Silverlight can immediately get started developing on the phone. Just by using WP7 controls such as pivot or panorama, amazing user interfaces can be created in hours. And from a business perspective it's very important that a WP7 Silverlight mobile app can easily be ported to the web or desktop – and the other way around as well.
Q. You recently talked on WP7 opportunities at Techmeetup UK. What were the biggest concerns (if any) developers currently have regarding WP7? Which aspect of WP7 are developers most enthusiastic about?
Many non .Net developers need to be convinced that WP7 is not a direct successor of the only modestly successful Windows Phone series, instead it is a brand new platform. Developers also seemed somewhat uncertain about how the Marketplace will work and how strict Microsoft would be on the approval process.
Most people I've talked with were really enthusiastic about the user interface and the ones who've started coding were all very happy with the development environment and the ease of getting started developing.
Q. Are you currently working on some WP7 application(s)? If yes – please tell us more about them.
I'm working on a few applications. One of them is a simple flashlight app which I'm planning to release as free on the marketplace. I've also teamed up with Distinction and we're working on Cocktail Flow, an application presenting cocktail recipies with some smart searching features. We're aiming to intuitive user experience and a stunning UI that sets a whole new level compared to similar iPhone and Android applications.
Q. If you were Microsoft, what would you add in WP7?
Not having real application multi threading is a big issue in my opinion. Currently one can only use push notifications to work around this, it would be great if some other trigger could be used as well.
I also think it would be useful if the sandboxed environment's bounds could be further extended – e.g. providing a APIs to read remaining battery power, get/set brightness or control the camera.
There are also some popluar features lots of people are asking for that are possible to work around, however lots of developers would appreciate libraries being added for them, such as a database component and further bitmap effects.
Q. What WP7 resources would you like to see published on SilverlightShow?
I think SilverlightShow is doing a good job on giving an overview of WP7 with their
Windows Phone 7 Application Platform series and showing off development of a real world WP7 application with the
WP7 stock quote application series.
I would further enjoy reading some articles on WP7 user interface planning and columns on real world WP7 application tips and tricks.
Q. What area(s) of Silverlight are you currently exploring? Most recent challenge you were faced with in your work?
I'm currently working on developing data visualization components in Silverlight and WPF using the same codebase. It's a tricky task as WPF and Silverlight APIs are very similar, yet they can behave differently in some special cases. However I do see a lot of potential in being able to reuse the same codebase for WPF, Silverlight and WP7 Silverlight to create desktop, web and mobile applications.
Q. What are your next speaking engagements? Where may people meet you?
I'll be talking about Windows Phone development on 30 September in Edinburgh at the Microsoft office. I've also submitted two sessions for DDD9 Reading in January, 2011 which I'll definitely be attending even if not speaking.
Thanks, Gergely, for taking part in our quiz, and for giving this interview for SilverlightShow!