How BUILD is key to spurring Windows Phone 7 adoption?

A lot has been made of recent beta builds of Windows Phone 7.5 aka Mango and the recent alleged internal RTM leak.  There is no secret that us early adopters of Windows Phone 7 have pointed to Mango as the starting point where Windows Phone starts to gain marketshare.  But are we not missing something extremely important?  How about a slew, nay, legion of developers who are veterans and flat out know how to get things done with Micrsoft technologies.  Microsoft is hosting its BUILD developer conference where among other things the company will be unveiling all the details concerning what program languages will be given 1st class treatment in the hotly awaited Windows 8 release.

You know Windows 8, the release that unifies Microsoft’s “three screens” strategy.  The one with the live tiles looking to take square aim at the iPad and take over the “iPad Market.”  Chief among the serious topics that will be addressed is the future of silverlight in Windows 8.  If it gets the same 1st class treatment and support as HTML5 and their legacy support continues to be a hallmark then all the developers who are going to immediately develop Windows 8 based tablet apps like Fandango will take the time to add the few changes to their code and make a companion Windows Phone 7 app.

Fandango WIndows 7 Slate App

Expect to see prototype/early hardware of Windows 8 slates to be shown off with real running apps at BUILD.  The potential excitement and commitment to the Windows platform that can come out of that is immeasurable.  Microsoft strikes a chord this September with BUILD, showcasing how the phone, pc and tablet can now truly mingle without compromises makes it a no brainer to go with the home team so to speak.  Don’t forget that Mango seems like a very sure bet to be in a bunch of people’s hands by time BUILD arrives.

Now this isn’t to say the Windows Phone team can breathe easy.  On the contrary, now is the time for the Windows Phone team to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, do away with the distracting noise and get up in every carrier and OEM’s face and ensure no tomfollery occurs this time around with the Mango release.  Do it right and go hard and they stand a chance to steal a considerable amount of the Apple’s thunder.  I’ll leave Microsoft and the Windows Phone team with this remaining thought. Remember the EVO!

Yes the EVO, Sprint and HTC shrewdly moved up the launch and the ad campaign with the EVO the moment Apple announced the release date of the iPhone 4 at the WWDC.  It went from a late June release to a May release and got a great headstart selling the EVO and in the process went a long way to making Sprint move from being an afterthought to a viable carrier option.  To this day the EVO has a place on almost every best selling phone list for the current month.  If HTC can get things done there is nothing stopping Microsoft, with its high user satisfaction rating and armed with several strong selling OEM partners (cough, NOKIA, cough) from doing the same thing.  Of course the requisite sexy hardware must come along for the ride.

So set your reminders for MIcrosoft’s BUILD conference and cross your fingers that silverlight and other applications .NET developers have staked their profession lives on continues to be as important as they should.