Now, with the release date of Windows Phone 8 passing a couple of days, Microsoft has released the SDK (software development kit) for their OS this morning. The kit has been made available for download on the Microsoft website though you first need to buy a Windows 8 first of course to clear the eligibility criteria for running the kit.
The SDK is believed to be majorly designed for the app developers. It’s been clear that Windows mobiles are running short of apps in the marketplace. Though the exact number rounds to more than 1, 00, 000, but it is still just a stone in front of mountains created by Google and Apple with each of them having more than a half million apps. Therefore, Microsoft with this version tried to be as developer specific as possible and offering some specials to attract the developer community towards their platform.
The features of Windows 8 SDK are vast as well as powerful. A Wallet API has come into picture so that the developers can earn easily with their apps. Including 90 percent of the features requested by the developers, this SDK provides a standalone IDE (integrated development environment) which used the Visual Studio Express 2012 edition for building apps and games for Windows Phone 8.0 and 7.5. Also, they have provided an add-in to the Visual Studio 2012 Professional, Premium, or Ultimate editions.
As a measure to prevent the bugs found later in the apps after their launch in the Marketplace, Microsoft has devised a powerful testing system to analyze the different aspects of the app before actually launching it in the market by measuring the battery drain, startup time, response time, network latency and determining the real-life conditions. In addition, the SDK includes emulators as well for all the three resolutions for testing the app performance.
On the whole, Microsoft has really tested its extremes this time and has got the right results. But still, a lot depends upon the growth of interest of the user community as ultimately they are the ones to decide the fate of both; the OS and the developers.
