Andrew Whitechapel - Windows Phone 7 development internals: Covers Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 7.5

So, youre curious about Windows Phone development? Welcome aboard! Whether youre an existing Microsoft Silverlight developer wanting to branch out into the mobile space, an existing mobile developer looking to extend your reach across a second or third ecosystem, a rising star whos ready to create the Next Big Thing and take the world by storm, or maybe just a curious phone user who wants to know what all the app fuss is about, Windows Phone is the platform for you.

Getting started with Windows Phone development is free and easy; everything you need to write apps is just a couple of clicks away. You can have your first app up and running in a matter of minutes, even if you know next to nothing about Windows Phone development or dont even own a device. As your apps become more ambitious and you encounter more complex development issues, a vibrant developer community on the web is ready and willing to help you out along the way. Mastery of this platform, with its rich feature set, unique application model, integrated end-to-end experiences, and burgeoning international marketplace, takes time and effortand an expertly written guide. Luckily for you, this book is just such a guide.

The Windows Phone platform stands on the shoulders of giantsgiants such as Silverlight, XNA, Microsoft Visual Studio, and Microsoft Expression Blendand as we built the platform, we embraced the power and familiarity that these existing technologies afforded us; our goal was to introduce new concepts only when strictly necessary to enable new scenarios, and to re-use existing concepts everywhere else. We spent less time re-solving old problems (such as navigation and microphone capture) and more time tackling new ones so that we could ship a vast array of new phone-specific APIs for developers to wrap their heads aroundcameras, gyroscopes, multi-tasking, phone integration, user data access, and live tile updates, just to name a fewand Andrew covers all of them (and more!) in this book.

As youve probably heard (and seen), Windows Phone ushered in a new design language for Microsoft, code-named Metro. Adhering closely to this design is critical when building user experiences that will delight and engage your customers. As you would expect, the Windows Phone developer tools give you a big helping hand in this department, providing user interface elements and application templates that just work by default. Nevertheless, as the owner of your applications overall experience you are ultimately responsible for ensuring it performs optimally, adhering not just to the graphic design rules, such as content over chrome, but also the fast and fluid interaction model that your customers will come to expect. Throughout this book youll find practical examples and guidance that show how to embody the Metro design language in your applications, along with examples of common pitfalls and how to avoid themparticularly with respect to application performance and responsiveness, which are key factors in user satisfaction (and hence, app ratings and profitability).

On a more personal note, I was thrilled when Andrew asked me to tech-review this book (although writing this foreword was more than a little daunting!). As an infrastructure guy at heart, I love building platforms and enabling developers to be successful on top of them, but there are only so many people you can reach via blogs or conference speaking sessions. Ive been asked to author books before, but Ive never had the time or inclination to do so. By piggybacking on Andrews hard work with this book, I feel like Ive made a differenceif only a small oneand that makes me grateful for the opportunity. I also learned a lot while reviewing this book, and I know that you will, too.

Peter Torr

Program Manager in the Windows Phone Application Platform team