Back to VSLive! San Francisco Show Daily Home

	email article
	printer friendly
	more resources

Mobility for the Masses
Microsoft's Ori Amiga discusses Windows Mobile future developments.

VSLive! San Francisco, March 23, 2004

Ori Amiga

Before VSLive! and Microsoft Mobile DevCon, FTPOnline caught up with Ori Amiga, group program manager of the developer division of Microsoft Visual Studio for Devices. He provides a preview of what developers can expect in the .NET Compact Framework Whidbey and gives an update on the .NET Compact Framework's adoption in the industry.

FTPOnline: What improvements can developers expect in the .NET Compact Framework Whidbey?

Ori Amiga: When determining which feature enhancements to include in the .NET Compact Framework Whidbey, we turned to the developer community. We found that developers want more performance, extensibility, and productivity from their mobile development tools. With the .NET Compact Framework Whidbey, we are delivering these enhancements through a faster execution engine, a new JIT architecture, COM interoperability, more Windows Forms controls, and extra base class libraries, to name a few.

FTPOnline: It's been one year since the launch of the .NET Compact Framework. What type of adoption are you seeing?

Ori Amiga: We've seen a tremendous amount of interest in the .NET Compact Framework. Look at one of the many community sites devoted to mobile application development, such as OpenNETCF.org. Desktop developers are realizing the mobile opportunity, extending their skills, and going mobile. Windows Mobile developers are learning to build rich client applications and the value of a managed code environment.

FTPOnline: How are you seeing enterprise developers take to the .NET Compact Framework?

Ori Amiga: We are seeing a lot of uptake in industries such as field service application, law enforcement, and transportation. Extending your application down to devices requires no additional skills and minimal work, so enterprises can easily use the .NET Compact Framework to add value to their existing IT investments.

The Next Cool Thing
FTPOnline: What's the next "cool" thing for Windows Mobile developers?

Ori Amiga: There's a mind-blowing wave of innovation around the corner in the device space. The mobile industry is now at a wonderful point, where devices are getting sexier and sleeker, while the software is getting more powerful and able to support rich and interactive applications. We're seeing incredible devices that integrate exciting new form factors; powerful hardware configurations in terms of CPUs; memory and 3-D graphics acceleration capabilities; and integrated peripherals such as telephony, cameras, WiFi, location services, security, and more.

Windows Mobile developers can do some incredibly cool things today on our software. In the future, they should look forward to our next-generation Windows Mobile platform, which—coupled with our OEM and Mobile Operator partner offerings—delivers an exciting family of devices for rich and powerful applications. Along with our development toolset, breadth of APIs, new Mobile2Market services, and fast-growing ecosystem…what could be more exciting than being a Windows Mobile developer?