Windows Phone 8 SDK now available to download
Microsoft have made the Windows Phone 8 Software Development Kit available to all comers, encouraging budding Windows Phone 8 devs to get to work on apps and games for the new and improved mobile operating system.
The Windows Phone SDK 8.0 can be downloaded directly from Microsoft and offers all the tools and documentation needed to start building apps for the new mobile platform.
Until now, the SDK had only been available to select, core development teams. But by opening up the SDK to everyone, Microsoft will be hoping to replicate the hundreds of thousands of apps available through Google’s Play Store for Android and Apple’s App Store for iOS devices.
All developers looking to work on Windows Phone 8 apps will, naturally, require Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro to be installed on their computers, enabling the SDK to display apps “under real-world conditions”.
Alongside Windows Phone 8 apps, the SDK also lets developers create Windows Phone 7.5 apps, which will also run on phones upgraded to Windows Phone 7.8.
However, there will be no backwards compatibility between Windows Phone 8 apps and older handsets, which has frustrated owners who have seen their recent Windows Phone handset purchases been abruptly made obsolete.
