In 2009, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced the company's leading web application platform for organizations, SharePoint, has exceeded 1 billion dollars in profits with over 100 million licenses sold. I was in the audience when he said that and couldn't help but reflect on how far SharePoint has come in less than a decade. In the subsequent year, Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7 with its target audience of "Life Maximizers". That's probably you: An individual with an equal passion for working smart and living life to its fullest; a person who needs a mobile platform to support that lifestyle.

As you're reading this, you're probably interested in how to develop Windows Phone support for SharePoint. Microsoft took a solid first step in that direction, by providing some SharePoint features as first-class citizens of Windows Phone 7. However, as SharePoint professionals know, a limited built-in feature set isn't where this story ends. Every organization is inherently different, every user has different requirements, and every business has a unique workflow.

Todd Spatafore, the author of the book you're currently reading, recognized this gap and has worked tirelessly to bridge the mobile world and the business world. Customizing SharePoint is at times a daunting and uninviting task, but the moment Windows Phone 7 became available, Todd labored endlessly to bring SharePoint to Windows Phone 7. It requires a visionary person to recognize an untapped integration point and to persue its research and development fully. Todd Spatafore, in my humble opinion, is such a bold thinker and a technology evangelist.

Many leading technology analysts are now predicting Windows Phone 7 will overtake iOS and/or Android in a few years: Gartner, IDC, Pyramid, and others. With SharePoint, adoption at an all-time record high and Windows Phone 7 adoption sky-rocketing, it's essential that resources on how to customize SharePoint for Windows Phone 7 be made available. This book is an Avant-garde work in that field and a superbone at that.

If you're interested in taking existing or new SharePoint assets to Windows Phone 7, then this is the book for you.

Sincerely,

Justin Angel

(former) Microsoft Silverlight Program Manager and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional