The team at ChevronWP7 are gearing up to meet with Microsoft next week to discuss the possibility of keeping Windows Phone 7 open for homebrew app development. While the team hopes to work with the Redmond company amicably towards this goal, it is reporting that Microsoft intends to close the “coding error” that current enables the non-market installation of applications.
ChevronWP7 released an app that let you unlock your handset and install apps outside the Windows Phone Marketplace. This app was pulled by its developers when they made an agreement with Microsoft. In exchange for pulling the app, the team was able to arrange a one-on-one meeting in Redmond to discuss homebrew app development. Though the unlocking app is no longer available for download, it is still in the wild and is being used to install homebrew apps like the version of Google Maps that was made available by techautos.
For those that are interested in Windows Phone 7 and homebrew app development, the ChevronWP7 teams will report on its talks with Microsoft new week. Fingers-crossed that the software giant is more open to non-marketplace apps than Apple. Apple always seems to be in a cat and mouse game with the iPhone dev team and other iPhone hackers like Geohot. It would be a refreshing change to have a company open to community-driven app development,
[Via ChevronWP7]