Microsoft Tries to Lure Developers with iOS to Windows Phone 7 Porting Tool

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Windows-Phone-7-mapping-tool.jpg

Microsoft is trying to lure iOS developers into creating applications for the Windows Phone 7 operating system by offering an API mapping tool which helps them port their applications over from the iPhone. Jean-Christophe Cimetiere, Microsoft’s Senior Technical Evangelist for Interoperability, unveiled the tool on the Windows Team blog:

With this tool, iPhone developers can grab their apps, pick out the iOS API calls, and quickly look up the equivalent classes, methods and notification events in WP7. A developer can search a given iOS API call and find the equivalent WP7 along with C# sample codes and API documentations for both platforms.

Included in the package along with the API mapping tool is a 90+ page guide entitled “Windows Phone 7 Guide for iPhone Application Developers;” a series of “developer stories” from devs who have already ported their iPhone apps over to Windows Phone 7; and a compilation of the key resources needed to get started.

To begin with, the tool will only support iOS APIs from the Network/Internet, User Interface and Data Management categories:

Don’t expect a mapping for all of the APIs, simply because the platforms are built upon different architectures and user interfaces. For this first round we focused on identifying the one-to-one mapping when it exists. In the following versions we’ll expand the scope and anytime the concepts are similar enough, we’ll do our best to provide the appropriate guidance.

Microsoft are also planning similar guidance and tools for developers of Google’s Android platform, but there’s currently only support for iOS. Developers can download the package from here.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 operating system launched last fall and has struggled to compete with the already well-established Android and iOS platforms. iOS developers reported last year that the company offered them cash to port their titles over to the Windows Phone OS.

[via AppleInsider]

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