Monday, May 16, 2005
Should Developers Drop Support for Pocket PC 2002?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 06:00 AM
I received an interesting email from Mel Sampat, the man behind Two Peaks, and I think this question is on the minds of many developers right now. I'll let Mel explain:
"Like many other developers I met at MEDC, I am trying to figure out whether to drop support for Pocket PC 2002 devices now that Windows Mobile 5 is out. The new Visual Studio 2005 only allows us to target WM2003, WM2003 SE and Magneto devices. I'm wondering whether to move forward with using the latest development tools and API's, or continue to maintain broader support including 2002 devices. Can you run a poll or two asking users what percentage of them are still using a Pocket PC 2002 device, whether they would consider a Magneto or 2003SE upgrade, and also what the community in general thinks of developers dropping support for 2002 devices in their apps?"
In an ideal world developers would be able to support every Pocket PC out there, but given that Microsoft has changed the tools to only support 2003 and above, that's not an ideal world. The more time developers have to spend making sure their applications work on older devices, the less time they have for new features, and in some cases, the more expensive their applications will be. Weigh in by voting in this survey and commenting.
"Like many other developers I met at MEDC, I am trying to figure out whether to drop support for Pocket PC 2002 devices now that Windows Mobile 5 is out. The new Visual Studio 2005 only allows us to target WM2003, WM2003 SE and Magneto devices. I'm wondering whether to move forward with using the latest development tools and API's, or continue to maintain broader support including 2002 devices. Can you run a poll or two asking users what percentage of them are still using a Pocket PC 2002 device, whether they would consider a Magneto or 2003SE upgrade, and also what the community in general thinks of developers dropping support for 2002 devices in their apps?"
In an ideal world developers would be able to support every Pocket PC out there, but given that Microsoft has changed the tools to only support 2003 and above, that's not an ideal world. The more time developers have to spend making sure their applications work on older devices, the less time they have for new features, and in some cases, the more expensive their applications will be. Weigh in by voting in this survey and commenting.
