Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Today we're disclosing the details of the Windows Phone 7 application development platform and tools and how to create more compelling and creative applications and games based on Silverlight and XNA. Everything starts there, but it doesn't end there, not until you've been able to distribute and sell your application to a customer. The way users discover and download an application or game on their Windows Phone 7 Series device is through the Windows Phone Marketplace."

There's no denying that the existing Windows Mobile Marketplace is a stretch from what it should be. Enter the Windows Phone Marketplace for Windows Phone 7 Series. Microsoft has significantly revamped the shopping experience to meet user expectations.

The Marketplace will ship on every Windows Phone 7 Series device and deliver a single, consistent environment from which you can browse through, purchase, and update apps, games, music, and podcasts, and also view special offers and exclusives as they happen. Now, Apple, take note! There's also a Trial API available to developers to release trial versions of apps if they wish to. Microsoft describes the Marketplace in greater detail on The Windows Blog, so be sure to head over there and check out the article.

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Greetings from the Microsoft MVP Summit. Today I'm happy to write to you and tell you... absolutely nothing from Summit due to NDA! But I do have some interesting developments regarding Windows Mobile Marketplace which should make developers smile. These will all be rolling out over the next few days from Microsoft.

• The $10 fee to submit to additional marketplaces. The $99 fee is still applicable, but to submit to smaller market segments, the additional fee is now gone.
• Registration flow for ISVs should be improved.
• Users in Russia will now be able to access Marketplace.
• Acceptance policy changes, including allowing VoIP applications unless specifically prohibited by the carrier.

Hopefully this will help remedy a few Marketplace issues, and encourage its growth!

"As you can see...the Zune-inspired interface continues into the Marketplace. It looks like Microsoft has saved the first screen to feature an application. Beyond that, you can filter into apps, games, music, and podcasts..."

There are some new pics of the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace on PocketNow.com. I'm very impressed with the new interface and personally think it breathes a lot more "life" into the experience. The new interface is almost identical to the existing Zune Desktop marketplace and very easy to navigate.

"If you are developing applications for Windows phone, you have probably read about the Standard and Advanced Anti-Piracy Protection available to developers to help protect your hard developed IP. If you haven't done so yet, check out the Windows Marketplace anti-piracy model white paper available here. Advanced Anti-Piracy Protection (AAPP) is designed to thwart the illegitimate sharing of your Windows phone applications. Even if a hacker obtains the binaries from one device, AAPP will prevent that application from running on any other device. While Standard Anti-Piracy protection does not require any intervention by the developer, AAPP does require that you integrate code into your application. We will walk through how AAPP works, how you obtain the AAPP code from Microsoft and how to integrate the AAPP code into your application."

Well I'm sure the 7 developers that have paid to be in Windows Mobile Marketplace will appreciate this. Just kidding - I'm sure their are dozens more (Although the offerings still look kinda skimpy on there, in my opinion). This method does make sense, although if I were developing for WinMo I'd probably want a solution that didn't force me to make two versions of my app (one that checked for marketplace code, the other that didn't). Therefore wouldn't it just be easier for developers to verify licenses by using something simple (like e-mail address lookup) inside the app?

Engadget is reporting that Microsoft new app store, Windows Marketplace for Mobile will be gracing the screens of Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 devices. This is welcome news as it had been previously limited to the new WinMo 6.5 platform. Now users of existing devices can get apps from one place and developers just got a few million instant new potential customers. Great news!

If you are a developer and have questions about the forthcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile, check out the new forum on MSDN. You'll need a LiveID to sign up, but chances are, if you develop for Windows Mobile, you already have one. The forum is new but seems to have a few Softies in it to answer questions and take feedback.

"In the latest update to http://developer.windowsmobile.com, developers can now Register to participate in Windows Marketplace for Mobile. This marks another milestone in providing Windows Mobile Developers a clear path to develop, test, certify and distribute their Windows Mobile applications via the Windows® Marketplace for Mobile. Throughout the registration process, links to key documentation for distributing apps through Windows Marketplace for Mobile are provided."

Developers, if you haven't registered to participate in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, now's as good a time as any to do so. You'll have to pony up an annual subscription fee of $99, but doing so will net you assistance with the development, certification, and distribution of your app. Check out the FAQ, if you have any queries. It's worth noting that participation is optional. You may consider the cost or the policies of the Marketplace to be too restrictive, in which case, you're still welcome to develop your app and distribute it through third-party storefronts as you're probably already doing so in this pre-Marketplace era.

The illustration to the left is inspired by something I was told today: the forthcoming Windows Mobile Marketplace is going to be for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones only, not back-ported to Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.0 phones. That's right - the millions and millions of Windows Mobile phones out there today (40+ million I'd say in the past few years alone) will not have access to this forthcoming software directory. Only people that buy brand new phones, or perhaps a tiny percentage that will get a 6.5 upgrade for their phone, will be able to access this. They might as well made it available only to unicorns - both are mythical at this moment in time.

The strength of a software platform comes in numbers. Being the only one in the world with a fax machine means it's useless. Developers are excited about the Marketplace because, for the first time, they'll have direct access to the customer and can easily offer their software to them. But that audience is going to be very small at first, when it should have been very large.

I've been using Apple's App Store lately on an iPod Touch I purchased specifically for this reason, and I've never seen anything so easy to use in my life - it makes the discovery and purchase of software incredibly fast and simple. I'll write more about that later, but the point is that Apple made the App Store available to not only new iPhone 3G owners, but first-generation iPhone owners, and owners of both first and second generation iPod Touch owners. For developers, that means millions and millions of customers that are only a few taps away from trying, and buying, their software. Overnight millionaires were made by the Apple App Store because Apple put it in front of so many customers at once. This is the right way to do it. Read more...

Microsoft is at CTIA this week to make a slew of announcements related to the Marketplace, Windows Live, and Windows Mobile 6.5. Expect all the details during Robbie Bach's keynote; however, if you simply can't wait, jump the break and we'll feed you some preliminary information as well as a few screenshots.

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"On a related note, the presentation confirmed that the new Windows Marketplace for Mobile will apply application updates directly on the device. However it also appears application updates will require developers to resubmit their application for approval which would then cost a submission token or fee and take time to process."

Allow me to place Long Zheng's words (quoted above) into context. When Microsoft unveiled the Windows Marketplace for Mobile a week ago, it outlined details pertaining to program enrollment and the application submission process. To join the program, developers pay an annual registration fee of $99. That fee includes five application submissions per year. When a developer consumes all five submission tokens in a given year, each additional application submission within the same year costs $99, whether it's a free or paid application.

Now, this probably wouldn't restrict the average developer too much, as he or she is unlikely to release five new applications in a given year. However, a real problem emerges once these submission tokens are applied to application updates as well as new applications, which is actually the case, if Long's words speak the truth. It's not uncommon for developers, especially those who actively respond to customer feedback, to release more than five application updates in a given year. But who can blame a developer for being discouraged when they're being slapped with a $99 fee per update after the fifth update?

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"Steve Ballmer, at the recently held developers conference at Sydney, Australia, said that Microsoft is working on a App-store like software distribution. Apple's iPhone and App-store have really stirred the Windows Mobile Market. Though there are many 'app-store like' distributions, for example - Handango, they are not something that is offered directly from Microsoft. But at the same time Ballmer also mentioned there are no plans to mimic iPhone's App-store."

Has anyone else noticed how talkative Steve Ballmer has been lately? For the longest time now we haven't heard anything from Microsoft and now it is as though they took the gag out of Steve's mouth! I know we reported on this a while back, but it is nice to see some of the higher-ups in Microsoft confirming what were before just rumors. No matter what Microsoft decides to do anything will be better than Handango. The last time I used Handango the site was so poorly laid out that I felt as though I was pulling out my own teeth. Though Microsoft will have to be careful shaking things up to much. We all know how much the Windows Mobile developers out there love Handango and might not want to use anything else! (That last sentance was pure sarcasm for anyone that didn't pick up on it!)

What if filling up on Microsoft Points was as easy as picking up your phone and having the cost added to your phone bill? That's how it is for NTT DoCoMo users in Japan, and hopefully, that's just a starting point.

If Microsoft is working with other carriers to make this available around the world, great. If not, they probably should. A vast majority of Xbox Live Marketplace and Zune Marketplace users probably have a mobile device of some sort - some have their reasons against directly linking their Windows Live ID and credit card together, while others don't always want to make the trek to their local store to pick up one of the many Microsoft Points cards on offer, so this third option makes a lot of sense.