Microsoft Confirms That Current Windows Phone Apps Will Run On Windows Phone 8, hints at Silverlight Death
On the Windows Phone developer blog, Microsoft’s Larry Lieberman reaffirmed that indeed, today’s Windows Phone app will work just fine on Windows Phone 8:
With regard to existing applications: today’s Windows Phone applications and games will run on the next major version of Windows Phone. Driving application compatibility is a function of Microsoft’s commitment to its developers. Regardless of what we release in terms of new developer features and functionality, we have made a large investment in protecting your existing investments.
That is certainly good news and should allay some fears for devs. Microsoft also discussed about the Silverlight development platform and there are hints that Silverlight may be de-emphasized for the next generation of Windows Phone:
We’ve also heard some developers express concern about the long term future of Silverlight for Windows Phone. Please don’t panic; XAML and C#/VB.NET development in Windows 8 can be viewed as a direct evolution from today’s Silverlight. All of your managed programming skills are transferrable to building applications for Windows 8, and in many cases, much of your code will be transferrable as well. Note that when targeting a tablet vs. a phone, you do of course, need to design user experiences that are appropriately tailored to each device.
From my own perspective, its really not that bad, and I think Windows Phone 8 development platform will be made similar to Windows 8.
Read more at Windows Phone Developer Blog.
