SYNNEX introduces Windows Phone 7 mobile app development

At SYNNEX's Varnex Spring 2011 Conference, the distributor has announced that the company has added the capability to develop mobile applications on the Windows Phone 7 platform. The Varnex Spring 2011 Conference Mobile Application was developed by the SYNNEX Mobile Apps team on Windows Phone 7, Android, iPhone, HP Palm Web OS and Blackberry platforms.
As mobile computing is the next paradigm shift in the IT industry, SYNNEX says it continues to be committed to having a relevant mobile strategy in order to provide additional value to its partners, by not only building the mobile applications that help complete partners' on-premise solutions, but also by augmenting their capacity to deliver these solutions to their customers. SYNNEX and its partners now can develop and deliver end-to-end cross platform mobile applications with the addition of Windows Phone 7 platform.
"By adding Windows Phone 7 Mobile Applications development capabilities, we are deepening our commitment and value to Microsoft and its entire ecosystem," said Kevin Murai, President and Chief Executive Officer of SYNNEX Corporation. "By bringing mobility development capabilities on multiple OS mobile platforms, we are helping our partners to penetrate into the mobility space, influence the sales of up-and-coming technologies, like tablets, and most importantly, further enable them to deliver more efficient solutions to their customers."
"The fact that my company can now implement more efficient business processes through mobile application solutions for our clients makes us more relevant to them. This is a definite point of differentiation for SYNNEX," said Jeff Bohlig, Chief Operating Officer and Principal of Compar in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Windows Phone 7 apps: 'Quality over quantity,' Microsoft says

Since the launch of Windows Phone 7 operating system last year, Microsoft has been trying to catch up to Apple and Google in the mobile-apps race. And the software giant took to its blog yesterday to share its progress.

Microsofts says that there are now 11,500 applications available in its Windows Marketplace store. Out of that, 7,500 applications are paid, while 1,110 apps are generating revenue through ads, thanks to the company's Microsoft Advertising Ad Control service. On average, Microsoft says, users are downloading 12 apps each month.

The size of Microsoft's mobile marketplace still pales in comparison to Apple's App Store. According to the Apple app page on the company's Web site, there are now over 350,000 available applications to its customers. In January, Apple announced that 10 billion apps had been downloaded from its store since its launch in 2008.

It's a similar story on the Android side. A Google spokesperson told CNET in an e-mail today that the Android Market has "more than 150,000 apps available in the Android Market."

Though that's still much lower than Apple's App Store, the Android Market might soon enough overtake Apple's option as the world's largest application marketplace. Earlier this year, Kevin Mahaffey, the CTO of mobile security firm, told CNET in an interview that given Android's growth, it should surpass the App Store by the middle of next year. Between August and February alone, the number of Android Market apps available to U.S. users alone increased by 127 percent, according to Lookout.

Microsoft isn't too concerned about the number of apps available in its marketplace. The company's Brandon Watson said in the blog post that for Microsoft, it's a matter of "quality over quantity." Its app tally does not include "lite apps," and it doesn't "double and triple count apps which are submitted in multiple languages."

More than anything, Watson said in his post, Microsoft is "dedicated to evolving the platform to enable more developers to create amazing apps; more possibilities, more functionality, more customers and more markets."

So far, there are 36,000 developers creating apps for Windows Phone 7. Out of all the registered developers, 40 percent have actually brought a program to Microsoft's mobile platform.

Market researcher IDC expects Microsoft's Windows Phone 7/Windows Mobile operating systems to account for 5.5 percent of smartphone shipments this year, well behind Android, Apple's iOS, BlackBerry, and Symbian. But by 2015, IDC forecasts, Microsoft's share will jump to about 20 percent.

Microsoft To Woo Windows Phone 7 Developers

Microsoft this week will attempt to convince software developers that it's worth their time and effort to create applications for its Windows Phone 7 platform.

The software maker's MIX 11 conference, in Las Vegas from April 12-14, will feature keynotes and sessions devoted to the relatively new mobile OS, which represents what many analysts believe is Microsoft's last chance to make a dent in a market dominated by the Apple iPhone and, more recently, devices powered by Google's Android OS.

Microsoft recently said it now has more than 11,000 apps for Windows Phone 7. While that sounds like a healthy number at first blush, it pales in comparison to the 350,000 iPhone apps currently available and the more than 100,000 apps now claimed by Google for Android. Windows Phone 7 also conspicuously lacks officially sanctioned apps from a number of major content providers, including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News.

Microsoft will try to change that at MIX 11 with a series of keynotes and sessions that aim to convince attendees that Windows Phone 7 will gain the critical mass that developers--particularly those from big publishing houses and studios who are faced with a mushrooming field of devices they need to support--require before committing to a platform.

Central to the pitch will be a keynote to be delivered Tuesday by Windows Phone program director Joe Belfiore. Belfiore will no doubt discuss the status of recent updates for Windows Phone 7, including the NoDo patch, which mainly adds a copy & paste function. The NoDo rollout is now in progress but was delayed due to a glitch in an earlier patch that, ironically, was designed to ensure that future updates go smoothly.

Belfiore is also expected to provide news on Mango, an update that should be available later this year that adds Internet Explorer 9 and support for HTML 5 hardware acceleration to Windows Phone 7.

But developers' main focus will likely be on what Belfiore says, or doesn't say, about the status of Microsoft's recently announced partnership with Nokia. Nokia, which still ships more handsets than any other phone manufacturer, agreed to use Windows Phone 7 as the default OS for its smartphone lineup.

Neither Nokia nor Microsoft has provided a solid timetable on when Windows-based Nokia phones will show up in the market, and have yet to hammer out all the details of their alliance. Still, market watcher Gartner predicts the deal will eventually make Microsoft the number two player in the smartphone wars, ahead of Apple's iOS and trailing only Google Android by 2015, "solely by virtue of Microsoft's alliance with Nokia," according to a research note issued last week by the firm.

Microsoft puts its money behind Windows Phone 7

Microsoft is not messing around when it comes to spending money to promote the new Windows Phone 7. According to the New York Post reports global corporate titan Microsoft has allocated over $500 million for both the Windows Phone 7 and for the Xbox 360 Kinect. That’s over $1 billion dollars (pinky up to my lips with my Dr. Evil stare)!!! Seems like Microsoft is at war with Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s Playstation 3, the Iphone and Adroid all at the same time. Ahhh smells like a price war will follow and we can all afford some new and really cool toys! Let’s face it though. Microsoft is the worldwide leader for software. No one really comes close. They are super smart by making their software communicate with other devices running other forms of Microsoft software. The Windows Phone will be able to communicate with Xbox Live and Zune software but with also every other Microsoft software loaded on your pc. Beyond that it will also be able to function with software created for Microsoft. Adobe announced that Acrobat X and Adobe Reader will be available for Windows Phone 7. That makes a lot of things way easier to view on your mobile device. I think 2011 will be a new era in technology across the board. With almost all facets of the tech market having big and serious players each offering their own brand of cool ideas we will all see some great tech and software advances come out. I feel that the Windows Phone 7 will make mobile devices way cooler than anything we have ever seen before.