While Windows Phone Mango is set to blow the minds of users, it's also destined to bring a lot for developers too. Todd Brix has just published an article over at the Windows Phone Developer blog that not only runs through what's great about the update including the launch of the web Marketplace, but takes us through what's new for developers on the platform.
The web Marketplace is an obvious plus for developers with the increased reach and new channel to attract potential customers as well as opening up more marketing opportunities. However, it's been a true annoyance that the advertising service provided by Microsoft for the Windows Phone platform is restricted to the US - but not anymore. pubCenter now supports Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Developers from the above countries can use the advertising SDK to create a stream of revenue to help fund the development work poured into the app. Remember when we covered the report that Microsoft Advertising has a 71% higher ad yield than AdMob on Windows Phone? Now you can take advantage of this with the improved coverage.
Should you be outside the reach of the AppHub itself, Todd reminds us that there are local services available for developers to make use of:
- Asia Pacific: App Port
- China: Device7 & MTel
- Central and Eastern Europe: APPA Market
- Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): Softkey
- Middle East, Africa, and Latin America: Yalla Apps
Moving on Todd continues to discuss how well the Marketplace is growing with the lack of malware and spam and surpassing 30,000 apps. We'll now end with an interesting quote from the article:
"We’re also always improving the Windows Phone Developer Tools to make it faster and easier for developers around the world to create MORE amazing apps and games. Watch for another blog post tomorrow from Cliff Simpkins with an update on the SDK and developer builds of Windows Phone 7.5."
Source: Windows Phone Developer blog
