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After providing a technical preview to developers last month, Microsoft has today released the final build for version 7.1.1 of the Windows Phone "Tango" SDK. The main focus here continues to be the ability to develop for handsets with 256MB of memory and sample app performance through the use of a built-in emulator. Despite numerous limitations that will accompany lower-cost devices, the company continues to highlight the benefits of new hardware by saying it could spur an increase of 60% in potential app customers when combined with the 23 new countries that gained Marketplace access last week. Developers also have the option of ignoring devices with less resources entirely and restricting their apps for use on hardware containing the previous RAM standard of 512MB.
There's also good news for the early adopters out there: WPSDK is now compatible with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, though we're curious as to why anyone would be using an unfinished OS to handle development tasks. Microsoft reinforces that line of thinking with a note that it doesn't intend to fully support Windows 8 until a final RTM (release to manufacturing) build is distributed.
