August 30, 2012

3 Reasons to be excited about Visual Studio 12 and Microsoft Build

Two airline tickets to SeaTac. That’s what die-hard Microsoft developers are booking. The first is to the Visual Studio 2012 launch event, to be held Sept. 12 at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash. The second will be to the Microsoft Build conference, also at the Microsoft campus, from Oct.

Early Windows 8 Enterprise Application Development Experiences

Three enterprise application development shops recently talked to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley about their experiences writing apps for Windows 8. Sogeti, which builds apps for utility companies, has been using XAML and C# with Visual Studio 2012 to build apps that “embody the spirit of Metro, but aren’t too flashy.”

Microsoft Unveils Windows Azure Mobile Services

Microsoft is going after business in the mobile development industry with a new cloud computing offering called Windows Azure Mobile Services. It offers a cloud-based backend for mobile apps, freeing up developers to focus on the front end. Services include cloud-based data storage, user authentication and push notification. Currently, Windows

IHS: Smartphones Will Be the Majority Worldwide by 2013

Smartphones already account for a majority of mobile phone sales in the U.S., and the same will be true worldwide by the end of next year, says market research firm IHS iSuppli. Previously, the firm had predicted that smartphones would attain a global majority by 2015, but the company now

68% of Enterprises Have Developed Custom Mobile Apps

A new survey from App Central is shedding more light on the state of enterprise mobile development. Among the 200 enterprise workers surveyed, 64 percent said they had access to custom apps from their organization. Interestingly, little of the funding for those apps from IT budgets: 36 percent said most

Report: By Christmas, China Could Have More Smartphones Than the U.S.

China’s iOS and Android markets are growing by more than 400 percent per year. A new report from Flurry compares iOS and Android adoption rates country by country. Currently, the U.S. has more iOS and Android devices than any other nation–165 million in all. However, China is in second place