July 22nd, 2011 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Platforms: Windows Phone | No Comments »
Microsoft is preparing the Windows Marketplace for the launch in new markets and of course the launch of the new Windows Phone 7 Mango update.
In total, 19 new consumer markets will be added; Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan. Also, developers from Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, South Africa and South Korea can now sign up to put their apps on the App Hub. Microsoft also announced Chinese developers will soon have the possibility to sign up as well.
The App Hub has also been translated to simplified Chinese and Korean, which should open up some interesting markets to developers. Furthermore, there are more sub-$5 pricing options available due to dollar fluctuations.
In regards to in-app advertising through pubCenter, Microsoft will be supporting Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom by the end of the year.
Regarding app distribution, Microsoft has some very interesting news to share. It will now be possible to setup Beta distribution for your apps. You can send them to up to 100 beta testers who can access the apps for 90 days, but that’s not all… You can also distribute apps via deeplinks that are not discoverable on the marketplace. An ideal way to develop and distribute business2business apps. There’s no limit to the amount of apps you are distributing this way.
Finally it is now possible to change metadata of your app without having to re-submit it, there are updates to the dashboard giving you more insights, crash count reporting has been improved and lots more.
