Yesterday I attended a Windows Phone 7 "boot camp" hosted by a Microsoft Developer Evangelist (I swear that's the official job title; I have his business card). It was basically a hybrid between a crash-course in Silverlight/XAML along with, you guessed it, phone-specific stuff such as the emulator, Blend integration, the marketplace, and much more. Along with all that we were treated to live demonstrations on his trusty Microsoft-supplied smartphone running a pre-release version of the OS.
I have to admit that Windows Phone 7 impresses me and has me just a wee bit excited. If I ever finally upgrade my current phone it'll only probably be to get one with Windows Phone 7 when that becomes publically available. (To those of you who actually click my links, yes my phone just turned four years old this month.)
I suppose what really appeals to me, other than it being sexy (like most smartphones these days), is that I feel like I could easily start creating phone apps. I've dabbled in XAML, Silverlight, and MVVM enough that I could actually dive right in. And there is something really electrifying about seeing your little program running on a little hand-held device. Something no one else in the house will be as excited to see, though.
It's already cool enough that we have Star Trek technology in our hands… even cooler that I can make it more useful to me with custom software. That is something I've been waiting for since mobile phones originally started getting widespread in the early aughts. I know, I know… totally geekin’-out.
A good indicator is that I'm already getting ideas of what I'd like to create. Expect to hear more snippets on Windows Phone 7 from me in the future.
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