We have launched eight apps so far (http://www.learnzapp.com/apps/) , which are available on iOS, Android, Nook, Amazon AppStore and  blackberry. With the increasing demand for windows phone, we wanted to launch our apps in WP marketplace, but never got it done. Why you may ask? Well, we didn’t know where to start. We had neither the hardware or the software for development. More than that we didn’t have time.
We estimated that it would take us about two weeks of work to port our app to the Windows platform and launch it in the marketplace.

So we got really excited about attending a free event hosted by Microsoft where they would help developers port apps to the Windows phone. Perfect, this is what we wanted. But we did not know what to expect, we were complete newbies when it came to development on the windows environment.

At the event, we got a loaner windows machine, with software pre-installed. With the help of Microsoft team, we were able to have a “Hello World !” app running on the windows simulator in less than an hour. It was pretty simple. We were off to a good start.

We continued to port our code and one of our apps was working on the windows simulator, in less than 3 hours. There were some bugs and improvements that needed to be done, but the basic stuff was working.

That is when things got really exciting. Seeing the progress we made in such a short time, JC from Microsoft generously gave us a brand new windows phone, helped us setup a new account on the windows app store, and got our app running on the phone.

Four hours into the event, we had our first version of the app, working on a brand new windows phone. It was alive.

For the next three hours, we ate pizza, drank beer, and fixed bugs. Olivier, Abu and Cory from Microsoft helped improve the app with a native Metro UI.

Seven hours into the event, we had our app working on a windows phone, using the Metro theme. And it looked awesome.

Thanks to the team at Microsoft, we now have the windows phone app ready to be published. You guys saved us more than two weeks of work. And thanks for the beer and pizza, it was great meeting you all.

Looking forward to launching all our apps on Windows Phone. We should have our account activated anytime now.