As you might have heard by now Microsoft has revamped it’s smartphone OS to be built on top of Silverlight. This is HUGE opportunity for Silverlight developers to port apps or creating new apps for the Silverlight Mobile platform. The new OS is called Windows Mobile 7.

If you want to make apps for the phone, you can install a free version of Visual Studio Express that comes the templates needed to develop Silverlight application on Windows Mobile 7 based phones. Click on the following link: http://www.microsoft.com/express/phone/ to begin.

If you already have a version of Visual Studio (like VS 2010 Ultimate) installed you will find the templates light up for your version as well. No need to work out of Express if you do not want to!

Since these phones are not yet released, now would be a great opportunity to start developing an application to have it ready for the app store when the phone hits the markets. Think of all the $$ you might make

To create a Windows Phone application for Silverlight follow these steps:

1. File->New Project

2. Select the template “Silverlight for Windows Phone”.

3. Click OK once you give it a name and you should be good to go.

You will notice a interactive design surface on your left that is embedded in a phone template. On the right side is your XAML code editor. Running the application will bring up a phone emulator window as seen in the screen shot below:

Best of luck creating your Windows Mobile 7 application in Silverlight!

–Mike