Windows Phone 7 nears the finish line with SDK release date
Even as Windows Phone 7’s launch rapidly approaches—currently expected to be October for the EU, November for the US—developers are still using incomplete beta tools for creating applications for Microsoft’s new phone platform. Though the company has still not announced exact launch dates for the phones, it has revealed a few more key developer details. The final, complete developer tools will ship on September 16, and Marketplace will start accepting application submissions from early October.
The updated SDK will give developers long-awaited built-in support for two of the new OS’s key user interface concepts: “panoramas,” the sideways-panning mechanism for building the OS’s hubs; and “pivots,” the building block for showing filtered views of data, seen in the e-mail client. These two concepts are found throughout the built-in applications in Windows Phone 7, and are a key part of its striking appearance—a look many third parties want to replicate. Their inclusion in the SDK is sure to be welcomed by the platform’s developers.