Microsoft OneApp – what is that thing?

Okay, so this is officially my second week in the OneApp team, and I must say I am really impressed with the group…sharp cookies one and all.  I am definitely bringing down the bell curve here :)

But I am equally as jazzed around the opportunities that OneApp will bring to mobile developers world wide.  The ability to reach MILLIONS of users with the EXACT SAME code base ACROSS DEVICES…that is cool!

Of course, the reason we can do this is because we have a CLR that runs above a VM on the device (and boy, it’s a tiny shim…very efficient).  So, you won’t be ‘going native’ with OneApp to the metal (so to speak), but you can create some extremely cool apps.

Best of all, for you folks out there that like to tinker, the platform supports free apps and a free tool chain…when I say free, I mean free.  As in really free.  As in, no cost (aside from your valuable time, of course).  I’ll have more info to share in the coming weeks and months, but it is very nice.

And the distribution model should be killer as well (remember the MILLIONS of users ACROSS DEVICES thing above…was that a gratuitous use of caps?).

We are still finalizing some pieces of the business models and such, so I can’t talk about those right now, but I will say that this is a different model…flat out.  I think you’ll like it :)

At any rate, as I dig in more, expect me to post more (like I used to); and as tools become available, I’ll try to let you all know about ‘em ASAP!

In the words of my friend John Smith (Xbox team)…peace.

Hegenderfer