Microsoft Launches New Dev Center Partner Program

Microsoft has announced a new Dev Center Partner Program which provides middleware providers access to devices, software, co-marketing, event support, and more. The program includes a new partner directory to help developers find a growing list of middleware partners targeting Windows.

Current partners include Unity, PayPal, PhoneGap, Facebook, Localytics, Fortumo, Syncfusion, and a number of others.

Windows will also highlight these partners’ activities as they relate to the Windows mobile platform. For example, Marmalade is a cross-platform, native game development environment that allows developers to build in C++ with full support for standard libraries and third-party extensions, then compile directly to native machine code with no appreciable performance overhead.

With the recent release of version 7.4, Marmalade has incorporated a number of new features for Windows Phone 8.1, including:

- Support for on-the-fly compilation of DirectX shaders.

- Support for shared entitlements across Windows Store and Windows Phone Store, enabling the ability to deliver a uniform application experience across device type.

- Use of APPX package format, paving the way for Universal app support.