It is no secret that I work in one of the most experienced Windows Mobile development ISV company. Lately we were wondering about the future of Windows Mobile. Traditionally, we developed Windows Mobile applications in C++ (for the Pocket PC platform). We used MFC throughout Windows Mobile 2000, 2002, 2003, 5.0. For the Smartphone platform we plunged right into .Net Compact Framework.
While working on our latest Windows Mobile 5.0 products, we suddenly encountered some MFC changes that broke backward compatibility. We also seen the effort put in by Microsoft to promote .Net in general and for mobile development in particular.
Fears begun creeping in: will MFC future is doomed? Will we still have Win32 API’s in future Windows Mobile releases? What will the Pocket PC and Smartphone unification bring for developers?
We are now faced with decisions regarding our future Windows Mobile development technology. Basically we can:
- Stay with MFC and face its fate bravely.
- Move to Win32 APIs (or create our wrappers around it).
- Switch to .Net CF (and suffer the performance penalty and the hardships of doing non standard “things” with it).
What do you think?
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