What is phone development? (overview)
Phone development is a term for the process of writing applications for smartphones. Phones run an operating system as a platform to provide services to applications. As a result, phone development is similar to desktop development - with caveats. Phones do not have the memory or performance of their desktop counterparts. To simplify development, many developers initially run, debug, and test their applications in a software version of the phone - also known as an emulator. This enables the creation of your application in a standard, familiar environment, and can be deployed onto a phone when ready to use.
Watch this video about the Windows Phone 7 offerings, and then prepare your environment by installing the tools you'll use to build your first phone application.
LEARN THE FUNDAMENTALS OF PHONE DEVELOPMENT
Video | 9 minutes | Phone Development | April 2010
Now that you know what phone development is, watch this next video to learn about the tools and technologies for phone development, including two key programming models for building phone applications: XNA framework and Silverlight.
For help picking the right version of Visual Studio, review the Visual Studio 2010 comparison chart.
For more information about team development, read about Application Lifecycle Management.
Use the walkthroughs in this section to learn about how to develop for applications for Windows Phone 7.
CREATE YOUR FIRST WINDOWS PHONE APPLICATION
Walkthrough | Silverlight | March 2011
The best way to get started programming with the phone is to build a simple application. In this sample, you’ll learn how to use the phone emulator and walk through creating your first simple phone application.
Next: Continue Learning with the Windows Phone QuickStarts
CREATE A WINDOWS PHONE USER INTERFACE
Walkthrough | Silverlight | March 2011
Typically, you use Silverlight to create Windows Phone applications and XNA framework to create Windows Phone games. XAML is the declarative language used to create phone application user interface (UI), such as controls, shapes, text, and other content that is presented on the screen. In this sample, you’ll walk through creating a UI for your phone application.
Next: Get Started on the Windows Phone App Hub
REACT TO SCREEN ORIENTATION
Walkthrough | Silverlight
Learn about portrait and landscape screen orientations in this sample. Create an application that reacts to the orientation of the phone and draws the screen differently based on that orientation.
Next: Learn about Developer Resources on the App Hub
CREATE AN XNA frameWORK GAME APPLICATION
Walkthrough | XNA | January 2011
Download this sample code of an application that uses the XNA framework to detect a collision between two flying boxes.