For me, there are a lot of similarities between an application developed for Windows Phone and a Metro style app developed for Windows 8.

A Windows Phone 7 application (rather than an XNA game) is built in .NET and XAML against a subset of the .NET framework and the application has a lifecycle which needs to be conscious of battery life and so is split out into foreground/background pieces. The application is sandboxed in terms of its interactions with the local device and is packaged with a manifest which describes those interactions. The app needs to be aware of network connectivity status and its work on the network is done asynchronously to preserve the user experience.The app is packaged and deployed to a Marketplace which the user browses to find the app, read reviews, perhaps purchase it and then install it and receive updates over time.

Quite a lot of those statements are as true of a Windows 8 Metro style app as they are for a Windows Phone app and so a Windows Phone app developer already has a good head start when it comes to building Metro style apps for Windows 8.

With that in mind, we thought that we’d put on an event on the weekend of the 15th/16th of June in London to help developers with a Windows Phone app in Marketplace begin the process of looking at Windows 8 and whether they can get a quick win by bringing their Phone application onto Windows.

The idea is that we provide a space where developers can get together over 2 days and take the time out to look at what it means to take their app from Windows Phone to Windows 8.

Kicking off on Saturday 16th June at 10am, we’ll have plenty of power sockets, WiFi, whiteboards, drinks, pizza, games, prizes and some quiet space that you can work in. We’ve also people on hand with Windows Phone and Windows 8 experience to help you along the way.

There will be an attendee-voted schedule of talks but we’ll keep these out of your way if you just want to get on and code. We’ll also provide information around submitting your app to the Windows Store (details here).

If you have a Windows Phone app in Marketplace, now’s a great time to look at getting it onto Windows 8. Sign up. Bring your laptop. Bring your app. Bring Windows 8 and Visual Studio 11. We’ll do our best to help you get your app onto Windows 8.

Location & Venue TBA but it will be in central London, accessible by major railway and underground transportation.

Day 1
Saturday 16th June
10am – 9pm

Day 2
Sunday 17th June
10am – 4pm

Click here for more details and to register for the event – hope to see you there.