An open letter to WP7 app developers seeking inspiration

Dear WP7 app developers,

My birthday is coming up soon. Well, not my birthday — it’s my son’s birthday. Well, actually, I don’t have a son — it’s my dog’s birthday. Okay, it’s actually my neighbour’s dog. But that’s pretty much my birthday, right? It takes a village and all that, you know?

Okay, just work with me here.

The point is, I need some gifts. So why not a few presents in app form? Here are a few things that I haven’t seen in the mobile space that could be supremely useful in my daily life:

• My father is pushing 60, and like a lot of blue-collar guys his age, computers are not his strong suit. Any way you can get him an app that helps with PC tech support? I know it sounds like I’m a bad son here, but I’ve spent way too much damn time helping him to fix his Outlook inbox.
• How some support for the home team? How about a way for little league teams to design simple team apps of their own? When I was in little league baseball (Port Coquitlam Demons, represent!) everyone got baseball cards with their faces on them. These days, I’ll bet you kids today would get a kick out of being featured on their team’s official app, just like the pros.
• Okay, if I could really nerd out for a minute here, there can never be too many role-playing games with atypical settings. Fallout? Earthbound? Shadowrun? Classic menu-based games that could really benefit from touchscreen technology and WP7’s PC and Xbox 360 integration. I’m not saying to license these franchises (unless you’ve got a few briefcases full of money kicking around), but RPG makers should be encouraged to think beyond sword and sorcery.
• Okay, now here’s one for my mum: how about an app to remind people to water their plants? Set a schedule, get a reminder as needed. Let’s just say our cacti are doing better than the tropical ferns.
• I know there are a million restaurant apps, but as a coinnesseur of the finer things in life, I value one thing about a venue of gastronomy above all others — where the hell are the free wings? Seriously, give me a frequently updated listing about when and where the cheap wings are, and you’ll see downloads of your app skyrocket faster than my cholesterol.

Hey, if I knew the next million-dollar app, you think I’d still be writing for a living? All I’m saying is that there are still tons of apps just waiting to be developed, and with WP7, the field is a hell of a lot less crowded than the other mobile platforms.

So, good luck, WP7 developers; the (mobile) world is yours.

If you’ve got that million dollar idea, you could win $10K to get your idea off the ground. Find out how Microsoft is helping mobile developers with the Great Canadian Apportunity.