Microsoft launches developers’ day

applications and marketing them on their Windows-based platform.
What was really impressionable was the encouraging turnout of developers and interested people who thronged the event. Approximately 100 developers turned up and one would wonder why we don’t have any well-known locally developed apps in the market.
Traditionally Microsoft has never been a darling of hardcore developers and it has been at the receiving end of vitriol comments in most tech blogs. But this time around, credit has to be given to the engineers at Silicon Valley for coming up with an integrated system in Microsoft Visual Studio 2011.
Microsoft has made strides going mainstream with its software development platform and according to Mr Vincent Mugambi, Microsoft’s East and Southern Africa development platform manager, it is the world’s simplest way to design an application.
Mr Mugambi spiced up his presentation by taking turns to invite the attendees to have a hands on feel, of the demo while he explained how creating apps using Windows mobile SDK (Software Development Kit) works.
On a good day I’m personally not a coder but after the suaveness, clear-cut demos presented by various people randomly picked from the crowd, one would definitely concur that application development in Windows has surely become easier and creative. In a few clicks in Graphic User Interface, almost everyone can now make basic mobile apps of choice without formal, or programming background.
Charmed by how easy it is for a layman to develop an application, one lady sitting beside me screamed “it’s development for non developers”.
Speaking of women, it was good to notice that we had quite a significant number at this event and gone are the days when women would sit back off the technological wheels. We were also presented with the Kinect for windows SDK a motion detector, which is so popular with the Microsoft XBOX gaming console.
It can also be used to create a helping aid for the blind to dictate distance for destructive objects, metoers before collision coupled with a wireless earpiece to send sound signal.
Quite impressive was how the device could be used to dictate human motion simulating a virtual weatherman report on background. You can actually embed this programme in various platforms or customise it to get relevant results.
Microsoft has also been aggressive on the cloud market, last year it launched its traditional office suite on cloud as software as a service (SAAS), coined Office 365. This time around they are pushing for Platform As A Service PAAS product on the Microsoft Azure platform.
In his presentation, Dr Panache Chiurunge explored ways on how developers could take advantage of using the Microsoft platform to host and sell their own developed, products online.
Thousands of software resides online, where one does not need a certain application pre-installed first to run a service. There are such software as service programmes we use everyday like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter or Google docs to create professional documents from any computer.
There is an option to save your files for future use without the need to carry around a storage device, yet conveniently depend on the cloud platform for unlimited remote access. For platform based services, Microsoft Azure is only complimenting already established power houses like EBay and Amazon where you can host your own software on their servers for sale.
For every software purchase, Microsoft will pay at least 70 percent to the creator, which is quite fair considering the marketing advantages it presents. Thousands pieces of software are sold every day and if you happen to provide a good application solution and people notice it, you will be heavily rewarded.
With such a significant number of developers who only managed to attend the event one would want to believe that as Zimbabweans, our products are also shaking the market but you will be disappointed not to come up with any well-known Zimbabwean based or developed software solution online.
I personally know of many gifted coders in Zimbabwe but their absence in the international market is a real cause of concern. South African-based Word Press has been the number one solution worldwide for website development.
Kenya has raked in billions of dollars and subsequently increased its national GDP through their own local based M-PESA mobile payment solution. These are serious web based applications that impact the day to day living of our people. Apparently Kenya is proving to be a technological powerhouse in Africa.
Many successful startups have materialised, with their government highly prioritising ICTs, you can’t question why giants like Microsoft opt to have their Southern and East African headquarters planted in such a country.
Just yesterday ForgetMeNot Africa in partnership with JumpStart Community, TechZim and Econet Wireless Zimbabwe were running a talent hunt competition for Zimbabwean developers to develop a new SMS application or games using the ForgetMeNot Africa’s Application Programming Interface (API).
According to the official information, the winning developers will receive seed capital to develop their ideas and if successful, their applications will be launched in Zimbabwe on Econet earning you an on-going revenue share.
The deadline of developers to submit an application to be considered for the Test Drive Final shortlist will be May 25 2012.
Recently, the Zimbabwean market went hysterical over mobile payment solutions with almost every financial institution and giant mobile operator offering their own platform based money transfer services but most us pundits remained sceptical about the national impact of such moves, while the giants scrambled for the small piece of cake.
Kudos to Microsoft for having faith in our local developers, we now patiently wait for real solutions from you guys.