New 'Tango' low-end devices cannot run Background Tasks [Developers]

WP Central

Before today we called attention to new changes being brought about with the release of Windows Phone SDK 7.1.ane, the release supporting 'Tango' in all information technology's low-end/budget glory.

We also mentioned in that article that only 5% of apps wouldn't run in the new hardware configuration, which is downwardly to the amount of retentivity they employ whilst agile. However looking over this msdn folio we wanted to make it crystal articulate to our customs that in fact there is a limitation for our new friend the Lumia 610: information technology won't run Groundwork Tasks.

Specifically, generic background tasks are non supported for devices with 256MB of memory. A perfect instance would be the background task used to update the alive tile and enshroud in our own app. These types of tasks are known to developers equally Periodic tasks and Resources Intensive tasks (if yous desire to empathise the difference I recommend reading this overview). The potentially practiced news is that some types of background chore, such as the groundwork Audio agent which is used for playing music or podcasts after the app has been de-activated, wait to exist supported still.

A question therefore which I put to our readers, is this the first sign of platform fragmentation? Can nosotros nevertheless land that "you go the same cracking Windows Phone feel on any handset"? Or is this a reasonable omission for the sweeter cost spot?

Update: A quick clarification as some of our commenters aren't besides sure, this does not affect fast app switching (part of the multitasking functionality) and nor does it impact push notifications which generate live tiles or toast messages. I'd too similar to land that if apps make use of Background tasks Microsoft have provided methods for developers to place when a "mid-tier" device is beingness used before trying to enable the task, thus allowing users to continue using all other features of the app in question.

Update 2:Justin Angel argues (very well) that this is not mobile fragmentation, every bit technically developers will write lawmaking once which tin can then exist run on any Windows Phone platform, although developers may yet be required to test for these mid-tier devices and run functions of their apps in accordance. Instead Justin suggests that this classifies as 'device differentiation', in the same style as non having a gyroscope or front end facing camera in your device.