The Moth

this is very poor decision, i belive that microsoft is losingthe battle on the mobile development.
i get the filling that the mobile division is in a state of deep sleep,
while google and apple is in a state of innovation.
since WM5 we didn't saw any major improvementin this arena.

This is a time when you're going to need us - those of us who are developers - to crowd your platform with apps for an app store. Alienating developers by making it harder to develop for mobile... well, all I can say to that is, "weird!"

But don't worry - we'll be making apps. Just not for Windows mobile, or using Visual Studio.

So decoupled they don't work together?
that is just a lame excuse, VS2010 Beta 2 is out and it doesn't support the WM SDK's

I like the decision. With 2008, you needed Professional to do anything. With 2005, Standard was sufficient. I'm hoping (CROSSING FINGERS!!!) that this means VS2010 Express will be able to do Windows Phone development. To me, that was the dumbest mistake Microsoft made with WM5/6. Why create a barrier to your hobby programmers in a highly competitive market? Microsoft owns the desktop, they didn't need Express to maintain dominance (but it was very nice). With Windows Phone, they need the hobbiests BAD.

So, this is a good thing. I just hope it's (1) not delayed too much as to raise eyebrows why we have to use old tools on the latest mobile platform and (2) supports Visual Basic / C# / C++ Express editions.

If Microsoft gives us Express mobile development, I will know they are listening...

Well RC1 is out and still no Smart Device Development or CF support. Unless they are going to release a completely different IDE, which sounds very bad, then I can only see this ending badly. Of course that only leaves options that end badly. Microsoft obviously understands the value of beta testing and release candidates, so by their own logic they are making a mistake by not allowing users to try out mobile development in the beta/RC releases. Even if they do a beta release of an SDK, having VS officially released first means they probably won't be willing to change VS itself much to improve CF development. I have a hard time believing that only a post-released SDK is necessary for an optimal CF development experience. Until Microsoft starts prioritizing mobile development for every release, it will never be as well done. I would not mind them adding support for mobile development later if Microsoft actually developed VS the way they should have all along: They need to stop releasing all these different major versions and patches SDKs and service packs and just charge us a yearly fee to get incremental updates that constantly improve the IDE. Of course every great once in a while they will want to start over with a new version, but until that is necessary keep updating the current version.