Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) issued the RTW version of its Visual Basic add-on for Windows Phone 7, enabling developers to build and release Silverlight-based applications and games created in VB for distribution via Windows Place Marketplace. Available for download here, Visual Basic for Windows Phone Developer Tools-RTW requires Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher; Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone is not supported. (A trial version of VS 2010 Pro is available for download here.) Microsoft adds that this release is optimized solely for Silverlight projects--according to Windows Phone Developer Experience product manager Larry Lieberman, the add-on does not support projects created on the XNA Framework.
More than 15,000 Windows Phone 7 developers have registered to market their applications via Windows Phone Marketplace--an 80 percent increase since September--according to data released by Microsoft earlier month. The first WP7 smartphones reached U.S. retailers on Nov. 8.
For more:
- read this Windows Phone Developer Blog entry
Related articles:
Windows Phone Marketplace developer registration tops 12,000
Microsoft primps Windows Phone Marketplace for November launch
Windows Phone 7 released to manufacturers