Today is a very big day for me and my team. The stuff we have been working on is finally went live on stage MIX 2010.

Windows Phone 7 is easily the most dramatic re-entry/reset Microsoft has undertaken in any field it’s in. We announced the phone in MWC and the reception it got was phenomenal. However, in the new connected devices world, the application platform+market story is as or more important than the device itself. Today at MIX we just disclosed details of that.

1. The application model supported on Windows Phone 7 series will be managed only and will leverage Silverlight, XNA and the .NET Compact Framework. So basically you can reuse your C#/.NET and Silverlight skills to build amazing experience on the phone. I will get into details of this in the coming posts
2. Microsoft just announced free Windows Phone Developer Tools (preview bits available for download head over to http://developer.windowsphone.com/ )
   1. This builds on the amazing development experience brought in by the Visual Studio 2010 shell.
   2. You can either get a standalone Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone Or an addin for your previously installed VS 2010
   3. Windows Phone 7 series emulator (yes you do not even need a device to develop for Windows Phone)
3. A version of Expression Blend is also demonstrated for the Windows Phone (a free version will be available for download in the coming months)
4. A new Windows Phone Marketplace is being put into place
   1. Developers can earn 70% revenue from the applications they sell of the marketplace
   2. The registration to the market place is not free but it’ll be free for the DreamSpark program for students

Our team was involved with building the IDE, the emulator and the core .NET runtime that powers the applications. So watch out and in the coming posts I’ll deep dive into these areas.