Windows 8 Boot Camp Held in Indonesia, Produces Dozens of Applications

Hosted in Bandung, the Windows 8 Boot Camp by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) a few weeks back produced no less than 44 applications for Windows 8. All of the applications, which were made by top Indonesian developers, and are ready to compete in global markets through Windows Store. All of the applications will be launched at the same time as Windows 8 launch in Indonesia, rumoured to be around the fourth quarter this year.

The three-day workshop consisted of application development using the latest features of Windows 8, including Metro Apps, Live Tile, and Charm Bar. It was not only developing a concept, but developers had a hands-on experience building Windows 8 applications where they saw their ideas materialize into prototype apps.

Farid Zulkarnain, the EVP of business development of Navcore Nextology, a partner of Microsoft Indonesia said:

In this workshop, we prepared and will keep preparing top apps to be able to crack the market. Indonesia has a high competence and a lot of talented web developers who can apply their skills directly with HTML, HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS to build Windows 8 Apps. The workshop was successful and a lot of developers are interested to join the next one.

The Windows Store approach will open opportunities for Indonesian developers, not only to reach PC users but also tablet users and even game consoles (Xbox). One highly regarded developer, Batista Harahap, CIO of Urbanesia also applauded Windows 8:

If you compare to other platforms, Windows 8 could provide a richer UI/UX. In addition, the context you want to display can be driven (by push notification) from the server thus eliminating the pulling mechanism. From concept to production, a lot of development time is saved.

Microsoft is faced with the the challenge of ensuring those who access the app from PC, tablet, and X-Box will have the same experience. This can lead to confusion for developers, similar to what happened with Android. So we’ll have to wait and see how Microsoft can push Windows 8 as a attractive platform for developers, and specifically, how the developer community receives it in Indonesia.