Silverlight for Windows Phone
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Silverlight is the application development platform for Windows Phone 7. High performance gaming is also supported through the XNA Framework.
Silverlight for Windows Phone supports core Silverlight capabilities in managed .NET code with XAML including:
- High quality video and audio using a wide range of codecs, DRM and IIS Smooth Streaming
- Deep Zoom for enhanced reading and photo browsing experiences
- Vector and Bitmap Graphics and animation
Silverlight can also access the unique capabilities of the phone including:
- Hardware acceleration for video and graphics
- Accelerometer for motion sensing
- Multi-touch
- Camera and microphone
- Location awareness
- Push notifications
- Native phone functionality
Silverlight can also utilize the XNA Framework for Audio capture and playback, Media Library Access, and even accessing Xbox LIVE.
These capabilities are all exposed via managed code and can easily be targeted by adding Windows Phone specific libraries to your existing Silverlight applications. You can then utilize this functionality directly within your application, for example to databind a map UI to the current location or host an XNA Game Studio based game.
Developers build Silverlight applications and package them for submission to the Windows Phone Marketplace where users can download them to run on the phone on a trial or purchase basis. Silverlight for Windows Phone supports a built-in try/buy API to simplify the process of converting a trial to full version for both developer and end consumer.
Developers can use the same tools they already use to develop for .NET, XAML and Silverlight as development and design for the Silverlight applications on Windows Phone 7 is supported through Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone. In addition, existing Silverlight and .NET code, libraries and mark-up can easily be re-used in Windows Phone 7 Silverlight applications. The Windows Phone Emulator is integrated with both Visual Studio and Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone and provides a means for deploying, debugging and executing Silverlight applications without access to a physical device or publishing the application on the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Getting Started with Silverlight Development on Windows Phone
Excited about developing Windows Phone 7 applications and want to get started? Head over to the Windows Phone Developer portal to get information on:
What are you waiting for? Go install the tools and get started!