Market Place Hits 30,000 App Mark

Microsoft Windows Phone platform has been around for 8 months. Since its launch in November 2010, it has crossed milestone after milestone. The most recent of which being 'The 30,000 App Milestone'.

 Microsoft's Marketplace has taken the same amount of time Apple's App store took to reach this milestone and half the time Android has taken. This is really not a surprise considering Microsoft's efforts to reel in developers and customers.



With the Mango update on the horizon and the Market Place Mango ready, it looks like a good time to be jumping ship.

By Sameer

Guess what? China did block WP7 Marketplace after all.

My last post left more confusion than answers I guess, with Chinese WP7 users having all sorts of problem. Some can't gain access to the Marketplace no matter what, some regained access after rolling back to build 7392 or earlier, some rolled back all the way to build 7008 and still can't download anything.

There were doubts that it's Microsoft trying to block users who are not officially supported out of the game. However, as we've discussed before, it's not likely, because:
1) By IP address filtering, Microsoft will be barring out all US users who are temporarily staying in China.
2) If it's Microsoft doing it, users should have been barred out before the payment step, instead of paying and not being able to download.

Now we have got really solid proof that it's China's Great Firewall working in the dark. As mentioned in this post (Chinese content), by manually assigning a set of DNS servers on the router, a Chinese user could easily get back to the Marketplace and all those apps.

I tried it, and it simply works. That puts all the confusions to an end: China's Great Firewall is again doing DNS hijack, like previously to a million things, Android Market one of them.

However this quick solution can't get everything back on track. Marketplace still doesn't work on 3G, since the carriers are all with the government. They send all their data through the GFW, some even go as far as making certain GFW house rules. There doesn't seem to be a way of configuring DNS servers for 3G connection.

Anyway, beggars can't be pickers. We have lived on this side of the GFW for a long time, and we have learnt to be grateful.

Thanks 0mxfzy0 for working it out.

By Chassit

Wish List for next Windows Phone update codename Tango

Windows phone is certainly turning quite a few heads and is commanding respect from critiques and fanboys alike. Though the OS is packed with features certain necessary functions and features are missing.

I'm not gonna waste your time with the usual 'integrate skype, bring in dual cores, get more apps'. Instead there are a few other vital changes that could enhance the overall user experience and improve functionality. So here's my wish list:

By Sameer

China blocked WP7 Marketplace? (Updated: more test)

Well, guess most of us know that China always wants to control its entire web traffic. It doesn't want its netizens to see what's "not proper" by the government standard, thus sites like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook are all blocked by the national internet filter dubbed the "Great Firewall", or "GFW" in short. Along with popular SNS sites there are countless .au, .jp, .tw and .hk domain sites blocked for no apparent reason.

Now joining the rank of "China Hates You Club" might be our Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.

In the past 3 days or so, most Chinese WP7 users in my circle (myself included) had this problem: the Marketplace tile shows a certain number of apps could be updated, but when we click update, the progress bar stays "pending" like forever, then suddenly surge to 100%, and ends up "attention required" fail right away. The ISPs or carriers we had this problem on include:
- Beijing Unicom home ADSL
- Beijing Unicom 3G
- Shanghai Telecom ADSL
- Shanghai Unicom 3G
- China Mobile Fujian division 2G (worked briefly an hour ago and now as dead as a brick again)
- Zhejiang Unicom

Technically it could be the Marketplace itself going nuts. But now I'm sitting in my office where the WiFi is routed through a VPN to the United States. And guess what? All those apps stuck in the updating process last night are now getting updates super fast.

That leads to the conclusion that something went wrong between the Marketplace and our phones: the connection itself.

We are quite positive that WP7 Marketplace has been GFWed by China, although not being 100% sure yet. It's not really a surprise. A couple of years ago when I was an Androider, the Android Market was GFWed by DNS hijack too. We worked around it by tweaking phone HOSTS files and such, but the solution just isn't stable. Maybe for stability's sake, Motorola now rips the Android Market off its phones shipped to China and replaces it with two 3rd party alternatives, one from Moto itself, the other from a Chinese download site.

We don't know if this GFW block will be permanent. But even in the worst case, we believe with Nokia's moving to WP7, it will be lessened. After all, China is still a Nokia country, and Nokia just got ranked the #1 most trusted consumer brand in a national survey not long ago.

Note: Almost every Chinese WP7 user is now on Mango Beta just for the Chinese input's sake. There is a slim chance that the Marketplace problem lies in the Mango Beta server, although from the look of it, Mango Beta and NoDo devices actually shares the same Marketplace server.

Update:

Just tested the Marketplace again on Unicom 3G. Previously overlooked the app-buying process. This is now very frustrating. If this is Microsoft's doing, I think it's already committing business fraud (essentially the same as phishing) and could be brought to the court. The testing result (all done on phone) is:
- Browing the Marketplace: OK
- Searching for apps: OK
- Buying paid apps (checking Live profile and credit card): OK
- Billing: OK
- Downloading what I just paid for: Fail, can't connect to the Marketplace.

By Chassit

Windows Phone App Officially Getting In App Purchases

Though a lot of third-party services exist for in-app purchasing on Windows Phone, Microsoft might be adding it soon officially.

There a couple of hints which suggest this. There's a Vimeo video by Silvertail software from the Portland Code Camp about monetization for developers in which Kelly White remarks that in-app purchasing is on the way. Another is the agenda of Microsoft's Gamefest sessions in London which talks about Micro-Transactions and Downloadable Content. The agenda summary makes it seem like an Xbox Live feature but we will wait for more details before making a decision.

Keep Them Coming Back: Downloadable Content on Windows Phone

Speakers: Darryl Yust and Tim Gill

Come learn proven approaches for dealing with some of the toughest hurdles in adding downloadable content and microtransactions to your Windows Phone games! This talk introduces the new in-game purchase API for Xbox LIVE titles on Windows Phone. We'll get down to the nitty-gritty of how the API is used in Beards & Beaks, a shipped game title. We’ll delve into a sample code framework that helps you implement game-side functionality not included in the SDK library, including the handling of file transfers, tombstoning, serialization, offline scenarios, localization, content ingestion, and fast content iteration.

[Source]

By Akshay Bakshi

Check if your application meets the Windows Phone certification criteria

Punit Ganshani from ganshani.com has posted an immensely useful service for developers. He has created a test that evaluates whether your application is ready to be certified. The test will ask you some questions which are essential requirements to clear the marketplace certification test and then email you the results with feedback. It's essential to read the guidelines before you submit the application. If you have missed a few points there, the test mentioned will be very helpful. It will give you an idea of what you know and most importantly, what you need to know. If you are submitting an application for the first time, I highly recommend that you take this test first.

Detailed description of the test:

Take this short test to evaluate whether your application is ready for certification. Please note that your application details (name, version, etc) are not captured in this test, however your responses may be recorded and stored for analysis purpose. The test is only indicative of how fair your application will do in the certification process.
The test will also give you hints & suggested applications/frameworks to achieve some functionalities
Once you appear for this survey, you will receive a mail with the survey results telling you how ready you are for WP7 Application Certification.

Source: Ganshani 

By Rahul Mathur

Microsoft counters bulk application spam in Windows phone marketplace by imposing certification limit

Every time I go to the 'New Applications' category of the marketplace, all I see is spam. Hundreds of applications have been certified in the past in a single day consistently causing increase in number of applications but most of them being pushed out are basically spam so it isn't helping the marketplace at all. This is anti Windows Phone marketplace philosophy - Remember Quality > Quantity? 

Tod Brix, from Windows phone blog wrote on how Microsoft plans to tackle this issue. 

In recent weeks a handful of companies have individually published hundreds of apps in a matter of a few days. We call this bulk publishing. While these apps meet our certification requirements and give consumers a wider selection of content, we’re also finding that publishing them in bulk degrades our customers’ experience. By publishing hundreds of apps in a short amount of time, the popular “New” Marketplace list category fills quickly, pushing the other new apps out and reducing the diversity of the shopping experience.Microsoft’s philosophy is that an app marketplace should balance quality, choice and variety with a great customer experience – which includes easy shopping and discoverability. We offer customers thousands of apps and games, and we don’t want to compromise the quality of our shared customers’ experiences in using – or shopping for - any one of those apps. We’ve evaluated the impact of bulk publishing, reviewed some very thoughtful input from both our user base and our developer community and concluded that we need to take the following steps to restore the balance of choice and experience.To avoid the scenario where bulk publishing crowds out other apps in Marketplace in the future, effective immediately, we are limiting the number of apps any one developer can have certified in a single day to 20.  Developers creating a large number of apps can still submit all of them for certification, but they will be certified at a maximum rate of 20 per day rather than all at once.  This change helps us retain a balance of choice and customer experience by enabling customers to see a broader and more representative assortment of new apps from the developer community when they see “New” apps every day. As with all policies, the limit is subject to change based on the ongoing evolution of Marketplace and input from customers and developers.
In addition, we are reaching out to the companies who most recently published a large number of apps with similar functionality in a short period of time. We’re offering to work with these developers to explore how they can better take advantage of the Windows Phone platform to improve the functionality of their apps and reduce the need for large numbers of similar apps. Many of the most recently published bulk apps are being removed from Marketplace while these developers update and republish their apps. 

Effective immediately, Microsoft will impose a limit of 20 applications certifications per developer in a single day. The idea  is definitely smart, will satisfy both developers and consumers to a certain extent. Microsoft is also working with developers to sort this issue out. Some of the the applications which come under the ' bulk publishing ' category are being removed and asked to resubmit. It's important to note that these applications do pass the certification test it's just the bulk publishing makes it harder for users to hunt for new and exciting applications which hide under truckload of useless applications. Not anymore. I am glad Microsoft is addressing the issue before the release of mango since with the release of mango, developer application submission and marketplace will be available in 19 more countries which would have resulted in utter chaos. 

By Rahul Mathur

Windows Phone Marketplace crosses 20,000 apps, faster than competitors

Just two months after crossing the 10,000 mark, Windows Phone Marketplace has crossed the 20,000 app mark and is now the fastest growing platform.

Its taken roughly the same time as iOS to reach this milestone. Apple's App Store took 215 days, while Windows Phone Marketplace has taken 219 days, its also far ahead of Android and BlackBerry OS which both took 419 and 684 days respectively. There are over 6100 approved developers and nearly half of the apps are free. Games, Books and Entertainment are the biggest categories at 12% share for the first and 10% for the latter.

This shows that Redmond's efforts in engaging developers are definitely paying off. With the Mango SDK already available, 500 new features and Microsoft working to bring Mango to devs before consumers, the reasons to switch to Windows Phones just keep increasing.

[Source via WMPoweruser]

By Akshay Bakshi

Windows phone marketplace coming to India this fall along with mango update

Finally, we have something official for marketplace launch in India. Microsoft has revealed that Marketplace in India will be available this fall along with the Mango update.

Good news for both developers and consumers. Now all you gotta do is wait. 

via Windows phone dev blog 

By Rahul Mathur

Microsoft updates application certification requirement for Windows Phone marketplace

In a blog post, Microsoft have released an update to the policies regarding the application certification requirement required for submitting applications to the marketplace. Developers, take note.

More from the official blog post,

• First, we’ve updated and clarified our content policies and technical requirements to address some of the common questions and points of confusion that we have heard from several developers. These requirement changes will go into effect on June 3 for new applications and application updates.
• Second, we have added several test steps to the technical certification requirements to help developers conduct in-house application testing during the development cycle, in order to avoid common certification pitfalls and to improve pass rates and certification times.
• Finally, the application certification requirements for Windows Phone have now been integrated into our MSDN developer documentation. You can find the updated certification requirements here.

Now there have been addition to existing policies, a complete new policy and the usual expected modifications, here is a bit of an overview from Arktonic 

2.14  Your application must have distinct, substantial and legitimate content and purpose other than merely launching a webpage.This is a new requirement. It appears to be aimed at apps that are simple WebBrowser containers pointing to a publicly available site. Pretty self-explanatory.
3.7 (part)  Applications that enable legal gambling in the applicable jurisdiction where legal gambling is allowed may be permitted, subject to the Application Provider's acceptance of additional contract terms.This is an addition to the illegal gambling clause to clarify that legal gambling is generally not an issue.
4.7  Application Tile ImageThis section seems to have been added for the singular purpose of telling developers to make their small and large app tiles actually have someting to do with their apps. Seems kind of obvious to me, but I suppose this rule wouldn't have been made had someone not tried to violate it.
5.1.3  Application Responsiveness: If an application performs an operation that causes the device to appear to be unresponsive for more than three seconds, such as downloading data over a network connection, the application must display a visual progress or busy indicator.This was changed from the previous "5.1.3  Application Does not Hang". It now has a well-defined limit of three seconds maximum before an app is required to display some kind of "busy" indicator. This makes sense from a UX perspective, although the only real difference between the two versions is the explicit 3 second rule, so it's not thatdifferent.
5.2.3  (missing?)Um, yeah, I have a feeling Microsoft will fix this little omission.
6.5.4  The SoundEffect class must not be used to play a continuous background music track in an application.This was changed from a "should" in a note to a separate "must" clause. MediaPlayer is for music, and SoundEffect is for, well, sound effects.

 Do let us know your thoughts on this. 

By Rahul Mathur

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace down for most users, marketplace update incoming?(Updated)

Several worldwide WP7 users are reporting that Marketplace is down for them at the moment. They are getting the much feared ' Can't get this info right now. Check back later ' error in the marketplace which is something you will see quite often in the marketplace although this time it seems to be going on for quite a few hours now.

Microsoft has issued a statement on this ( via @winrumor ) :

We are investigating these reports and will provide an update when we have more to share

Well there isn't really and they told him that it's because of some update to the marketplace and the update will take some time.  a clear reason for this outage, but a blogger just had a chat with Zune and Windows Phone  customer service

We do not clearly know the reason behind this, but we will keep you updated on this. Microsoft's silence on this is clearly not helping.

Update : ....and it's up.

By Rahul Mathur