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Inspired by an exchange on a recent question, I wanted to know whether there is any good reason to develop Windows Phone 7 applications that target pre-Mango models, i.e. by creating applications that target the 7.0 APIs rather than the more recent 7.1 APIs.

My impression was that because the Mango update has now been fully rolled-out, there is very little reason why anyone would have a phone with a pre-Mango OS. My guess is anyone with a pre-Mango phone probably never connects it to their computer and probably does not download applications.

Are there any good statistics on OS version demographics that can inform this decision?

Community
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ColinE
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3 Answers3

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I know from the analytics of my apps that there are still people out there using pre-Mango versions of Windows Phone, but as you point out, they are unlikely to be connecting their phone to their PC to perform updates or even update apps they've already downloaded (my wife for example would still be on the original shipped version if I hadn't updated her phone myself!).

With that in mind, personally, I don't see the point in creating applications now that target pre-Mango versions of the operating system. The return is highly unlikely to warrant the effort.

Derek Lakin
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  • Good answer, thanks Derek. Can you share the numbers? What percent are pre-Mango? – ColinE Feb 09 '12 at 18:54
  • The results are a bit skewed because I switched analytics providers for a few versions and have just switched back to Flurry in the latest version (2.1), but currently only 1.9% of active users are using the latest version (it's only just in the Marketplace), but the rest are all using pre-mango builds, which according to Flurry amounts to about 2,500 active users. For reference, Car Finder has had over 10,500 downloads. – Derek Lakin Feb 10 '12 at 10:13
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There isn't much of a reason to target pre-Mango as opposed to Mango as the upgrade is available to all models of phone currently, and for free.

It is worth keeping on the latest SDK for no other reason than there is no reason not to... lol, made sense in my head. Things like performance improvements, bug fixes, new features etc are all reasons to keep up with the latest, as you are likely aware.

The only reason I would target an older SDK is if a particular version of the phone OS was not available to a certain piece of hardware for any reason.

Then again, if you can make your app with the lowest common SDK, why not - it will in theory only increase your user base as backwards compatibility is enforced, over choosing a newer and not-completely-rolled-out version. You just personally suffer the older APIs and miss out on new features. However, I see this counter-point as a largely academic argument and adds little weight to the choice of older versions.

Save yourself the headache, go with the new stuff. Anyone actively using their phone enough to also use your app is likely hot on updates.

Adam Houldsworth
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  • IMO I think it's still worth going over to Mango SDK as even for "lowest common denominator" apps you get Fast App Switching which avoids tearing your hair out supporting Tombstoning in fine detail. – Paul Annetts Feb 09 '12 at 17:13
  • @PaulAnnetts I agree, personally I would only ever go backwards if it were proven to increase my potential market enough to bother, as with anything. – Adam Houldsworth Feb 09 '12 at 19:02
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I don't do 7.0-specific programming any more since the roll out of Mango is now available pretty much everywhere I'm interesting in deploying apps. This question will rear it's head again when vNext is released (with potentially updated hardware requirements / sensors, etc), but for now I can't see much reason to target the old version.

ZombieSheep
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