Windows Phone evangelist says Android too insecure, complex

Microsoft says developers tools for Windows Phone more mature

Microsoft Windows Phone 7 developer evangelist, Dave Glover

Microsoft Windows Phone 7 developer evangelist, Dave Glover

Windows Phone will eventually succeed in the business market because there is too much malware attacking the Android operating system, which is also more difficult to develop for, says Microsoft’s Windows Phone developer evangelist.

Initially aimed at the consumer market, Windows Phone 7 (WP7) is slowly gaining momentum in the corporate space where it will become a mainstream option alongside BlackBerry, Symbian and the newer big guns iOS and Android, according to Microsoft Australia’s Windows Phone developer evangelist, Dave Glover.

“Windows Phone is aimed at the consumer market but it already has good integration with Exchange and SharePoint for business,” Glover said.

Glover cited St George bank and Qantas as local enterprises that have developed applications for WP7.

Unlike Android, apps for WP7 are required to be distributed through the MarketPlace app store, but Glover said this will change when private deployment of apps is supported in future versions.

“An enterprise might not want to make an app public and we are aware of that,” he said.

While Android provides the option of installing app without going through Google’s Android Market, Glover said businesses are not jumping on Android because of security concerns.

“There is a lot of malware targeting the Android platform,” he said.

Last week a vulnerability was discovered in the official Skype app for Android that could allow other malicious apps to access personal data on the phone.

And earlier this year some 50 apps in the Android Market were discovered to contain a form of malware.

In a further endorsement of his platform, Glover said the level of complexity is higher when developing an app for Android compared with Windows Phone.

“I’ve spoken to developers who have written apps for both platform and they say developing on Windows Phone is faster than Android and the development tools are more mature,” he said.

Microsoft is claiming 1.5 million downloads of its WP7 developer tools and 38,000 developers registered on its MarketPlace.

The MarketPlace offers hosting for 100 free apps and unlimited paid apps for every developer.

Glover said the new “social mash-up framework” for WP7 is targeted at entry level developers

The template enables developers to create mash-ups from Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds with security and advertising support, among others, built-in.

Glover said with IE9 and html5 support coming to Windows Phone there is no need to offer a Webkit-based rendering engine as IE9 is already the most compliant HTML5 implementation available.

Follow Rodney Gedda on Twitter: @rodneygedda

Follow TechWorld Australia on Twitter: @Techworld_AU

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Tags MicrosoftsmartphonesAndroidwindows phone 7mobile applications

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