It is truly an exciting time to be a developer on the Microsoft-based platform. Microsoft has been talking about the vision known as “Three Screens and a Cloud” for a while and that vision is now coming to fruition. The idea behind “Three Screens and a Cloud” is that you have an experience that can span devices (in this case, the PC, the Phone and the Television) that is glued together via cloud-based services. It’s a compelling idea and one that Microsoft has been determined to help bring to end users with the help of developers such as yourself.

With Windows 8, you have the ability to create truly amazing apps and games that can have reach to literally millions of users via the Windows Store. In similar fashion, you can build apps and games for Windows Phone and distribute them centrally via the Windows Phone Marketplace. The opportunity on Windows Phone is incredible as well — with over 100,000 apps and games the Marketplace is very healthy but not so overcrowded that your creation can’t stand out. For the Television, we offer you the ability to create indie games for Xbox, one of the world’s top video game systems. Couple those three screens with cloud services via Windows Azure and you have an almost infinitely scalable solution that will grow as your user base does. Finally, with Microsoft’s Modern UI, you have an amazing opportunity to create a truly transient experience that your users will love on all screens, catering specifically to the capabilities of the device your user is on yet having the familiarity of experience across those screens.

Just think about it for a second.  With the skills you already have, you can create truly transformational, multi-screen experiences on the Microsoft platform.  At no time in Microsoft’s history have we been able to provide you, intrepid developer, the platforms to not only build your ideas, but make them soar.  For example:

  • We have the tools to help you in Visual Studio 2012 (which launched on September 12 – check out the launch page for some great sessions to learn how to make the most of the tools),
  • An evolutionary operating system in Windows 8 that allows you to build unique, effective and beautiful Windows Store apps as well as traditional desktop solutions that can reach literally millions of users,
  • A smartphone product built specifically around user experience in Windows Phone and a development platform for building immersive apps and games for that phone that no competitor can beat
  • A truly scalable cloud platform (public and private) in Windows Azure that lets you build truly performant services and SDKs to make it incredibly easy to target for not only Microsoft-based devices, but any device platform today.

Now is the time to get on board with your app  idea — there’s always plenty of room to join the three screens revolution!