.Net and mobile devices list

Question

Hello guys.

I need to develop an application for mobile devices. I'm good in .Net and have no time/willing/money to learn any other libraries/frameworks. So I decided to create my application using .Net CF (is it good choice?).

What most popular devices are capable to run .Net CF application these days? I know only Windows Mobile devices.

I just want to know the list of devices, and what obstacles my users will face trying to run the application?

Thanks.

EDIT: Also I'm interested in iPhones, Blackberries, Android, ... Is there a possibility to run .Net applications there?

Answer 1

One problem that you might face is that most Windows Mobile devices won't be running a Windows Mobile operating system on it's own, most of them will have their own set of libraries or 'tweaks' to the Windows Mobile operating system. An example of this is the more recent HTC smart phones which run a heavily skinned and tweaked version of Windows Mobile.

So, it may be possible that a Windows Mobile application using the Compact Framework works fine on some devices but not others because of the extra 'tweaks' that the hardware manufacturers include with their devices.

What does your application do as I would have thought it was less likely to have problems due to different variants of Windows Mobile on different devices if it's fairly simple?

Answer 2

Microsoft publishes a list a Windows Mobile phones and smartphones that can run an application developed with the .NET CF.

As long as you only use public API and non-specific API (HP or HTC specific extensions), your application will run well on all terminals.

Note that you should make your application should be resolution aware to adapt its layout and its image to the screen DPI of the devices. .NET CF has some APIs for that.

Answer 3

You can run .NET/Mono applications on the iPhone using MonoTouch. But that will cost you money, which you mention is a constraint.

Otherwise there is no way to run .NET (CF) applications on iPhones, Blackberries or Android phones that I'm aware of.