|
|
It should come as no surprise that Microsoft has already started to populated the yet unreleased Windows Phone 7 Marketplace with a couple of third-party applications alongside some in-house apps. I already saw this 2 days ago when I was at the Microsoft Campus for some WP7 development work but Justin Angel from Vertigo Software actually decided to take a screenshot of the Zune software and post it on Twitter a couple of hours ago. As you can see in the shot above Microsoft has already released the in-house applications that we saw in the Channel9 video this week and a few third-party apps are already up for grabs. (like Yelp, Hexic etc) Interestingly there’s a YouTube extension to the Music & Video hub which should make everybody happy. WP7 users will apparently be able to directly access Youtube hosted videos via the Zune Hub.
One more thing… Continue reading Microsoft already testing third-party applications in the Windows Phone 7 MarketPlace: YouTube, Yelp →
Microsoft’s Senior Director Todd Brix has told Bloomberg today that the company is providing financial incentives ranging from free tools and test handsets to funds for software development and marketing to developers to build Windows Phone 7 applications. Microsoft is in some cases providing revenue guarantees.
“We are investing a lot to attract developers big and small to Windows Phone 7 to let them understand what the opportunity is and provide as many resources as we can to help them be successful on our platform,” Brix said. “We’re open for business and we want to work with them.”
It seems that the majority of the commenters and bloggers are getting things twisted a little bit here. Nowhere did Microsoft confirm that they are “throwing loads of cash” at iPhone devs to switch to Windows Phone 7 like it has been rumored before. People need to understand that this is called developer relation and that it has always excited on the console market (MS is doing exactly the same thing with XBOX for example) and any other Software sector. One thing you have to realise is that applications like the official Facebook app for Windows Mobile and Zune HD or the Twitter application for the Zune HD aren’t even developed by MS! They are develop by a software company named MatchBox who also develops Symbian, Android and Brew applications. Microsoft isn’t making it rain on iPhone devs folks, this is just standard dev rel.
Source: Bloomberg
It has long been know that Microsoft has been actively seeking developer support for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 platform. Some websites have started rumors that the Redmond company was throwing loads of cash all over the place hoping that some of the developer will accept the offer but this was later denied by company who clearly stated that they are indeed looking at offering iPhone devs the opportunity to build WP7 apps but that their is no outright cash offer involved. Today we finally have a solid proof that confirms Microsoft’s claims: iOS developer Oliver Drobnik has decided to publish the email received from Microsoft yesterday as you can see in the picture below:
Continue reading Proof that Microsoft is asking iPhone developers to develop for Windows Phone 7 →
It was reported yesterday that a research conducted by SMobile Systems found out that over 42000 Android applications on the Android Market allow a third-party access to sensitive or private information and some of them even able to send text message or cal any number without requiring interaction from the user. Microsoft’s Brandon Watson took the opportunity to explain why Microsoft will only allow third-party application installation and distribution via the MarketPlace (like Apple and the AppStore) and also point out that such rogue applications won’t be able to run on Windows Phone 7 anyway because every 3rd party app will run in its own sandbox and use isolated storage:
Continue reading A good reason why Windows Phone 7 applications run in sandboxes and have to be certified →
Last time heard about the ShopSavvy application was back in September when the Windows Mobile 6.5 version was announced. But from the looks of it this version has never seen the light of the day and Big In Japan (the developers) are now working on a Windows Phone 7 application instead:
We began collecting email addresses from users who were interested in getting ShopSavvy on Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry. In fact, if you like, you can request a notification when either version of ShopSavvy is available (AND request to be included in the Beta period) here:
ShopSavyy alows you to scan product bar codes with you phone and does a price search for stores (online and retail) nearby to give the lowest prices.
Source: ShopSavyy via WME
Here’s a nice TechED session dedicated to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. You see how the Marketplace in action (on the LG Panther / GW910) and also see how the application Trial API actually works and some talk about the private Beta testing functionality that we talked about a few days ago. Be sure to also listen to the Q&A session afterwards. Loke Ui’s claim that games must be rated PG13 is a joke….I hope (he jokes that they can’t bring Halo because it’s rated M) because the Twin Blades game that you previously saw in my hands-on session is really gore and is probably rated M (and is going to be one of the Hero launch application this fall).Some interesting info about the application’s performance: An Application must display a new screen 1 second after the user opens it (can be a splash screen) then the application has a maximum of 19 seconds to make sure that the user can operate it, if not the application will be rejected by Microsoft. There’s also a demo of the Windows Phone 7 development handset unlocker at the end. The video is after the break:
Continue reading Watch the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace in action →
Microsoft has announced a new Windows Phone 7 developer centric feature this week during TechED: Private Beta distribution through Windows Phone Marketplace. This will enable developers to distribute their applications to beta testers prior to marketplace certification:
The public model enables developers to market and distribute applications to all phone users globally or based on a particular geography. In contrast the private model enables developers to use the same Marketplace service to distribute applications to a defined set of people that they select for beta-testing. Developers will identify their beta-testers and then upload their application to the developer portal. The Windows Phone application deployment system will then ensure that the application is available on the beta-tester’s phones via a “deep link” the tester will receive in email. We’ll be rolling this mechanism out as we finalize the developer portal this fall.
Source: Microsoft
Microsoft is running a contest t’ill July 8th and giving away $5000 to the best entry:
Description: Ever had a great idea for a Windows Phone app? Pitch us the idea and if it gets the votes, we’ll build your app and make it available on Marketplace as a FREE download for Windows Phone 7. Submit video or written description of the dream app you need.
Rewards:
- Grand Prize Winner: One winner, selected by a Windows panel of judges from the top 150 Most Viral entries, will win the honor and glory of getting the app they need available as a FREE download on Marketplace, $5,000 and a new Windows Phone 7 device.
- Runners-up: Four runners-up, selected by a Windows panel of judges from the top 150 Most Viral entries, will receive a 16GB Zune HD.
How to Submit:
- Record or write (blog) your idea for a totally new, totally original Windows Phone application (app) — show us how creative you are.
- Click the Submit Entry tab and follow the steps provided.
- Tell your friends to come to Brickfish and vote for your entry!
Submit your entry below:
Continue reading Have a Windows Phone 7 App idea? Microsoft will buy it from you for $5000 if you win →
TechEd is currently in full swing and the Windows Phone team is steadily releasing new info about the upcoming mobile OS today. They’ve just posted the official Windows Phone 7 Marketplace policies for developers who wish to submit their applications later this year:
Specifically, the new Windows Phone Marketplace policies offer:
- Annual registration fee of $99
- No limit to the number of paid apps submitted 5 free apps per registration, $19.99 each after that
- Free registration to DreamSpark students (same unlimited paid and 5 free apps applies)
- A new optional push notification service to help developers stay engaged with customers
- A new optional Trial API – trials mean more customers try your app, and less likelihood that they return it. The length or type of trial is fully controlled by the developer
- The ability to publish to all available Marketplace markets through a new “worldwide distribution” option, allowing developers to pay once and distribute broadly
- Wider range of business models; free, paid, freemium and ad-funded
- Equally important to many developers is what isn’t changing:
- A revenue share of 70/30
- Developers manage their business with Marketplace via the self service portal http://developer.windowsphone.com
- Payout takes place monthly for developers that have earned more than USD$200 worldwide
- Developers can make ad funded applications
- All applications go through a process of technical and content certification
- Marketplace offers support for credit card commerce, and where available mobile operator billing.
- Microsoft continues its practice of publishing policies, guidelines, and submission process details to developers so they understand exactly how marketplace works.
The full list of Marketplace policies is available here(pdf)
Microsoft has just posted a 37minutes long video dedicated to the Windows Phone 7 Application Life Cycle. You will her about the new application submission system, how applications can also be remotely revoked by the marketplace, the application’s memory usage (there’s no quota, application can take as much storage as available on the phone), isolated storage, application secutiry etc..:
Windows Phone 7 Application Install Flow:
Continue reading Windows Phone 7 Application Life Cycle video →
Here are two new Windows Phone 7 Series videos showing the OS in action and the Marketplace. Both were presente at MIX10 2 days ago.
Marketplace:
The Marketplace update that Microsoft announced just a few days ago has been released today. Just launch the Marketplace app on your phone and you will recive the updated version. If this doesn’t work you can also uninstall the current version that is you your handset and download the newer one at mp.windowsphone.com.
Here are the new updated feature included in this version:
World View: previously known as “geo selector”, the World View feature will allow Marketplace users to browse and purchase applications from different geographic catalogs. For example, a user in France could choose to browse the English US catalog, or a user in Canada could browse the catalog from Japan. All application prices will show up in the user’s local currency and Microsoft will be in touch with registered independent software vendors (ISVs) in the weeks ahead to provide step-by-step instructions on how to re-price their apps for all markets.
Installation onto storage cards: a highly requested feature by end users, it will allow users to install applications downloaded from Marketplace onto storage card memory. This will solve a common pain point today where the main memory of the phone runs out after installing a few apps from Marketplace.
Free app submissions to additional markets: ISVs will no longer have to pay a $10 fee for submitting applications to additional markets. With this change Microsoft is simplifying its fee structure and providing more opportunities for ISVs to submit their applications to smaller markets. Once an application has been certified for a primary market ($99 submission fee applies) ISVs can submit for free that same application to other catalogs, as long as they meet the current Market Validation guidelines.
Improved ISV registration flow: The ISV registration flow in the developer portal will be simplified, with different registration paths optimized for the type of ISV (company, individual, student) and additional guidance for completing the application submission process will be provided.
Deep linking: Microsoft is releasing deep linking capabilities for ISVs to allow users to purchase their apps from Marketplace. On the web, ISVs will be able to construct a URL to link directly to the purchase page of their applications in the Marketplace Web site, and will have access to the “Get it Now for Windows phone” logo, which standardizes the way ISVs link to Marketplace. On the device, ISVs will be able to call Marketplace from within their applications and open the purchase page for a specific app, allowing them to offer additional titles or provide free users the option to purchase premium version of an application.
Expansion to Russia: users in Russia will be able to access and purchase apps via credit card from a local catalog of applications, as well as purchase from other catalogs through the World View feature. ISVs from Russia will also be able to register with Marketplace and submit their creations to any supported Marketplace country.
Applications policy changes: Changes are being made to Microsoft’s existing application acceptance policies to allow VoIP applications that use the carrier network unless explicitly prohibited by a mobile operator. Mobile Operators who sign a Marketplace deal with Microsoft will be able to dictate if they allow or prohibit the use of VoIP apps in their networks.
Microsoft issued a press release today announcing an upcoming update of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile and detailing all the new features and fixes. Users will finally be able to download apps from all over world (it is currently restricted to the users own country) and installing applications to the storage card will finally be an option. Check out the full list:
World View: previously known as “geo selector”, the World View feature will allow Marketplace users to browse and purchase applications from different geographic catalogs. For example, a user in France could choose to browse the English US catalog, or a user in Canada could browse the catalog from Japan. All application prices will show up in the user’s local currency and Microsoft will be in touch with registered independent software vendors (ISVs) in the weeks ahead to provide step-by-step instructions on how to re-price their apps for all markets.
Installation onto storage cards: a highly requested feature by end users, it will allow users to install applications downloaded from Marketplace onto storage card memory. This will solve a common pain point today where the main memory of the phone runs out after installing a few apps from Marketplace.
Free app submissions to additional markets: ISVs will no longer have to pay a $10 fee for submitting applications to additional markets. With this change Microsoft is simplifying its fee structure and providing more opportunities for ISVs to submit their applications to smaller markets. Once an application has been certified for a primary market ($99 submission fee applies) ISVs can submit for free that same application to other catalogs, as long as they meet the current Market Validation guidelines.
Improved ISV registration flow: The ISV registration flow in the developer portal will be simplified, with different registration paths optimized for the type of ISV (company, individual, student) and additional guidance for completing the application submission process will be provided.
Deep linking: Microsoft is releasing deep linking capabilities for ISVs to allow users to purchase their apps from Marketplace. On the web, ISVs will be able to construct a URL to link directly to the purchase page of their applications in the Marketplace Web site, and will have access to the “Get it Now for Windows phone” logo, which standardizes the way ISVs link to Marketplace. On the device, ISVs will be able to call Marketplace from within their applications and open the purchase page for a specific app, allowing them to offer additional titles or provide free users the option to purchase premium version of an application.
Expansion to Russia: users in Russia will be able to access and purchase apps via credit card from a local catalog of applications, as well as purchase from other catalogs through the World View feature. ISVs from Russia will also be able to register with Marketplace and submit their creations to any supported Marketplace country.
Applications policy changes: Changes are being made to Microsoft’s existing application acceptance policies to allow VoIP applications that use the carrier network unless explicitly prohibited by a mobile operator. Mobile Operators who sign a Marketplace deal with Microsoft will be able to dictate if they allow or prohibit the use of VoIP apps in their networks.
Microsoft Just announced the end of the Mobile2Martket certification program for Windows Mobile apps.
As of February 18, 2010, Microsoft will no longer provide the Mobile2Market program. Benefits of the program — including Buy It Now functionality with online distributors, the Windows Application Mobile® Catalog, the Designed for Windows Mobile 6 logo, and Microsoft Partner Points — will no longer be available after that date.
The Logo License Agreement for Windows Mobile 5.0, 6.0, and 6.1 also will end effective February 18, 2010, at which time distribution of and all references to the aforementioned logos will need to cease.
Thank you very much for your participation in the Mobile2Market program. We apologize for any inconveniences. If you have questions, feel free to contact the support team (acp@microsoft.com).
We would also like to encourage you to participate in the separate Windows Marketplace for Mobile program. For more information on the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, please go to: http://developer.windowsmobile.com.
February 18th is the day MWC 2010 ends, maybe just a coincidence tho..
Source: Microsoft via Fiercedeveloper via WMPoweruser
Microsoft just posted a blog post talking about the advanced Anti-Piracy protection that can be build into the applications sold in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile.
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.
You can read the whole post which contains code and in-depth information on how to implement AAPP here.
Source: Windows Mobile Developer Blog
French mobile developer Gameloft known for its ports of big franchise games to mobile devices has announced that it’s significantly cutting back investment in the Android platform:
“We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like … many others,” Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said at an investor conference.
Rochefort said the company has cut back on investment mostly due to weaknesses of Android’s application store.
“It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue,” Rochefort said.
They also said that they are selling 400 times more apps on the iPhone compared to Android. Well, if it took them this long to realise that they are not going to sell as many apps on Android than on the iPhone then these guys should probably stick to Apple’s smartphone. You don’t have to be a genius realise this given Android’s current marketshare and the fact that paid apps are only available in less than 10 countries. You also have to take into account that the targeted users aren’t the same, people who buy Android devices are not the same as those who buy iPhones/iPod Touchs. I wonder what they expected ?
Source: Reuters
As promised Microsoft has now made the Windows Marketplace for Mobile availalbe to all Windows Mobile 6.X devices. Just head over to the download page and grab the installer here. Or browse to mp.windowsphone.com on you WinMo device.
Source: Microsoft
Here’s any intersting game coming to Windows Phones (via the Winddows Marketplace for Mobile). Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka created a new new platform game which is exclusivly launching on Windows Mobile. the game uses drawn lines to propel the Kiwi through the level:
For more info head over to Prope’s website here
Source: Joystiq via Pocketnow
Microsoft is announcing the first update to the Windows Marketplace for Mobile today. The new update includes a more advanced anti-piracy protection and an improved developer portal for the registered ISVs, as well as introducing PC based shopping and account management for Windows phone customers. Unfortunately no word on the region selector which will enabled user to access apps not available in their country (because of the language).
Developer portal improvements and stronger anti-piracy protection
We’ve been gathering input on what we can do to improve the developer experience and have made some subtle but important enhancements to the developer portal to enable easier uploading of images, greater insight into account status and several other refinements based on feedback from developers. Today’s update also provides more advanced anti-piracy protection. While the underlying technical changes will be transparent for customers, developers will now be able to take advantage of these new protections by following the steps outlined in this anti-piracy whitepaper. As always, updates to existing applications can be submitted for free. To learn more about developing applications for Windows phones, head over to the Windows Mobile for Developers site.
Browse and buy applications from the PC
While we’ve heard great feedback on the Marketplace experience on Windows phones, sometimes people just want the benefits of a shopping on a PC. Starting today, Windows phone customers can browse, buy and download applications online at the Windows Marketplace for Mobile site. The selected applications are delivered wirelessly to the customer’s Windows phone and install the next time the Windows Marketplace client runs on the device. This creates another way for customers to easily find and purchase applications and gives developers a whole new level of exposure.
You can acces the new Marketplace webstore here
Source: Windows Mobile Blog
|
|
Recent Comments