Windows Phone Marketplace: The New Policies

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2010/06/07/new-policies-for-next-gen-windows-phone-marketplace.aspx?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter' target='_blank'>http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_..._medium=twitter</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Today we're introducing the new set of Windows Phone Marketplace policies that will govern the application submission and certification process as Windows Phone 7 comes to market. We're taking the next step with Marketplace to attract a much wider range of developers, from large software companies down to students and hobbyists. We introduced our first Marketplace eight months ago and have already shown that there is demand for an app store that is both customer-centric AND developer friendly. Marketplace is evolving to give people a great selection of beautiful apps for Windows Phone 7 that we will take steps to ensure are high-quality and don't introduce security or reliability issues. At the same time, we're giving developers the respect they deserve in our use of transparent and uniform policies that still give developers the necessary information and flexibility to explore creative sales and marketing models. For Windows Phone 7, we're keeping the basic tenets of our existing Marketplace philosophy and making a few enhancements for developers."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//wpt/auto/1275951743.usr1.png" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>I'm not a developer, so take my analysis of this with a grain of virtual salt, but I have to wonder if Microsoft is really feel desperate enough yet when it comes to wooing developers. Take the $99 annual registration fee; sure, now you can submit an unlimited number of apps, which is great, but why have the fee at all? Next to Palm Web OS, I'd say Microsoft has the least amount of developer momentum on a mobile platform - Microsoft needs to work harder to get developers on board.</p><p>I just loaded up Marketplace on my HD2, and with the filter set to United States - English, I counted 645 apps in total. That's a rounding error on Apple's App store...Microsoft, you really need to work harder to get developers on board. I'm certain that the high-end hardware on Windows Phone 7 devices will bring a lot of great developers to the table, but even with that, I think Microsoft should give away their dev tools and have 12 or even 24 months of all app submissions being free - they need to build momentum with developers, and making it "barrier free" to develop for Windows Phone is a good start.</p>

[David Tucker]

I think its a ridiculous fee. If Microsoft was comitted to getting developers on board, they'd have no fees. The money they would make from simply taking a cut of the sale would be a lot more than the fees if they were able to get a lot of devs on board.

I know what Google's model is, how does this compare to Apple's?

[doogald]

I know what Google's model is, how does this compare to Apple's?

Apple also charges $99 per year, or $299 for the enterprise programs.

If there are only 645 apps, I'd say that Microsoft is trailing WebOS as well, not next to them.

[Ed Hansberry]

If there are only 645 apps, I'd say that Microsoft is trailing WebOS as well, not next to them.
There are well over 1,000 apps in the marketplace. Jason set his to filter to US English only, so it ignored apps not available i that format. The Marketplace also does its own filtering to only show you apps that work for your device and with your carrier. Bing for example (last time I checked) still wasn't showing as updated for Verizon customers, and of course with WinMo 6.x, you still have the touch screen/non-touch screen division.

I don't know the number of apps in the marketplace, but I'd be shocked if it were less than 2,500. That said, that is still just over 1% of what Apple has.

Personally, I don't think it is the $99 fee holding it back. I think it is the lack of user enthusiasm. WP7 needs to fix that.

[David Tucker]

Yeah but MSFT should be saying "Anyone who signs up now will pay no fees for 1(2?) years" Its hard to justify spending time OR money on a platform that noone is using yet and is questionable on how successful its going to be.