WP 7 App Certification Requirements to emerge in June

May 26, 2010 09:33 GMT  ·  By
Microsoft to release Windows Phone 7 Application Certification Requirements in June
   Microsoft to release Windows Phone 7 Application Certification Requirements in June

Windows Phone 7, the latest version of Microsoft's mobile operating system, is slowly moving closer to its market availability, previously announced for the fourth quarter of the ongoing year, and some additional details on it have just emerged into the wild. Among them, we can count details on the maximum RAM supported by the OS, some more info on the app development or on the supported wireless protocols.

In addition, we learned that Microsoft is getting ready to unveil to developers all the Windows Phone 7 Application Certification Requirements in an official document that should become available for download from its website in June. The download page for the file went live over at Microsoft on Tuesday, but the file does not include the necessary info as of now. “Content under development” is what it states, with June 2010 mentioned as the time frame for when the actual document becomes live.

When it comes to the type of applications that will run on Windows Phone 7 devices, two categories emerge, namely web-based apps using Silverlight, and those built using XNA. The latter type would come as heavy apps, which should include cross-platform capabilities (Xbox, Zune, and possibly the PC). As for phone usage, a Windows Live ID will be required to have access to the device, a stricter requirement than the one on Android or iPhone handsets, where a user needs to enter a registered account only in the event he/she wants to download applications.

As for other details that made it into the wild recently, we can count the fact that the maximum amount of RAM Windows Phone 7 will support is 4GB. According to a recent article on Engadget, the RAM will be distributed as follows: “half is reserved for the low-level OS functionality, 1GB is reserved for the current running application, and the other 1GB is shared among the other running processes and apps.” While there are small chances that a WP 7 device with 4GB of RAM will be pushed to the market soon, the RAM distribution suggests that Microsoft might plan on introducing app multi-tasking with future OS versions, otherwise it wouldn't make sense to have 1GB of RAM reserved for that.

On the connectivity side, one should expect Windows Phone 7 devices to offer support for GPRS (1G), 1xRTT (1.5G), EDGE (2.5G), UMTS (3G), EV-DO/Rev A (3/3.5G), HSDPA (3.5G), WiMAX (4G), and LTE (4G), showing that upcoming handsets might work on the newly deployed 4G networks too. When it comes to storage, Windows Phone 7 is said to sport a unified storage system, which means that the entirely available memory, internal and removable, is treated the same way. One issue that might emerge here is related to swapping memory cards, as users will be notified that data might be lost when the Secure Digital card is removed.