Windows Phone 7 : AppHub and the Windows Marketplace for Mobile (part 1)

1. Windows Phone Marketplace Registration

Registering for the Windows Phone Marketplace is a straightforward process, which you can do at AppHub here: http://create.msdn.com. Registration takes some time to fully complete because Microsoft vets every publisher identity via GeoTrust. The timeline is partially dependent on actions by you, such as clicking the email link to validate your email address and providing the necessary documentation to GeoTrust in a timely manner

Publisher Verification ensures that consumers can feel confident that the publisher is who they say they are. This protects the consumer from a nefarious publisher impersonating their bank as a way to obtain a user's account information.

Registration costs $99. This allows you as the publisher to submit an unlimited number of for pay applications and five free app certifications. As of this writing, each additional certification event is $20 per application. Updates to free applications are no-charge certification events unless the application fails certification during the update.

Microsoft is continuously updating policies to better serve its developer community. The AppHub FAQ is a great place to start for the most recent updates: http://create.msdn.com/en-US/home/faq.

2. Submitting Applications to Marketplace

When you submit an application to Marketplace, the estimated average time for an application to be approved is five days. Microsoft validates the application against the criteria set forth in the document "Windows Phone 7 Application Certification Requirements" available for review at http://create.msdn.com. This document covers application policy guidelines, content policy guidelines, and application certification requirements.

2.1. Making Money

The application publisher sets the price of the application. As the publisher you collect 70% of the revenue and Microsoft keeps 30% for paid applications, which is in line with other application store revenue models. The 30% primarily covers the costs of marketplace, certification costs, and so on.

Microsoft also provides an advertising-based revenue model offering for Windows Phone 7. You are not required to use Microsoft's advertising offering but it does provide a very easy way to take advantage of advertising revenue. 

An important component to getting paid is potential application reach. At initial availability, Windows Phone 7 currently support 5 languages; English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, otherwise known as EFIGS. The Windows Phone Marketplace supports applications purchases in 30 countries as of this writing with more countries to be added in 2011.

• Australia

• Austria

• Belgium

• Brazil

• Canada

• Denmark

• Finland

• France

• Germany

• Greece

• Hong Kong

• India

• Ireland

• Italy

• Japan

• Luxembourg

• Mexico

• Netherlands

• New Zealand

• Norway Poland

• Portugal

• Russia

• Singapore

• Spain

• Sweden

• Switzerland

• Taiwan

• United Kingdom

• United States

In order to participate and sell your applications and get paid, you must be registered in Marketplace and have a bank account for one of these countries. Microsoft announced early in 2011 that more countries and languages will be added later this year. Go to http://create.msdn.com/en-US/home/faq/windows_phone_7#wp7faq53 to check on supported countries for the latest status.

2.2. Marketing Matters

Making money is more than setting a price. As part of the submission process, the developer supplies the detailed description, screen shots, and marketing art for items like the background panorama for the Marketplace hub. Your tile icon is determined by the background.png file that is part of your Visual Studio Windows Phone 7 project so be sure to update it so that it looks good on the Windows Phone 7 Start screen. The applicationicon.png file is the smaller icon displayed in the App List. Figure 1 shows the App List in the emulator.

Figure 1. App list

The marketing art for Marketplace is incredibly important because that is what the end-user sees when viewing your application in Marketplace on the device. Also, if you study successful applications on other platforms, the mobile ISV generally includes four people or roles, a business person, a marketing person, and a couple of developers. Someone has to wear the marketing hat to promote the application beyond Windows Phone Marketplace, such as via Social Networking channels, outreach to application review web sites, and so on. The most successful applications are those with a great business plan and great marketing behind them.

3. Bing Visual Search for Windows Phone 7

Not really an official web marketplace, however, the Bing Maps Visual Search provides a visual filterable search for the top 3000 applications. To review the search go to http://bing.com and enter Windows Phone 7 Top Apps. A new menu appears under the search box titled "visual search." Click it to bring up the results as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Windows Phone 7 Bing Maps visual search

You can filter the search by category on the left as well as filter using the headers across the top such as 100 Newest paid apps, and so on. Clicking on an application or game provides additional details on the application as well as a deep link for the Windows Phone 7 desktop marketplace, which is covered in the next section.

4. Windows Phone Marketplace on the PC

Windows Phone 7 does not connect to your PC via Microsoft's ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center. If you happen to own a Microsoft Zune media player, then you are already familiar with the Windows Phone Marketplace on the PC, which is the Zune client software available at http://Zune.net. Figure 3 shows a game found using the built-in Search functionality.

Figure 3. Windows Phone 7 Application in the Zune client

The Zune client provides the full Microsoft Zune experience for Windows Phone 7, including ZunePass if you are a subscriber. In addition to the media content such as music, videos, TV, and movies, end-users can browse and select applications for download using the Zune client for their Windows Phone 7 device. If the device is tethered either via USB or connected over a wireless network, the application will download via PC. Otherwise, if the device is not connected to the PC the application will download the next time the user launches Marketplace on his or her device.

The Windows Phone Marketplace is the only mechanism available to install an application on Windows Phone 7. It is not possible to "side load" an application on to a Windows Phone 7 device outside of the Windows Phone Marketplace mechanisms unless registered in AppHub and using the Windows Phone Developer Registration tool.

An important function provided by the Zune client is that it allows a developer to deploy code to a connected device from Visual Studio 2010 or Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone.