In part three of our series this week, we take a look at the latest contender: WP7. It's still early days for the new platform, but that could be all the more reason to get in now.
This week we've got a special 5-part report for developers: we're assessing each of the five major smartphone and tablet app stores - iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry and Nokia - and taking a look at the relative strengths and weaknesses of developing for each platform. Today, we're discussing the new kid on the block, Windows Phone 7. With WP7 only recently hitting the market, first-mover advantage awaits enterprising developers.
Platform #3: Developing for Windows Phone 7
Having launched Windows Phone 7 only recently, Microsoft has been watching the iPhone and Android app stores to decide the best way to promote development in its own Windows Phone Marketplace (WPM). So far WPM has been designed to encourage participation with straightforward and clearly-documented policies for app creation and submission.
Borrowing from Apple's policies, WP7 apps must be certified before being allowed into WPM. This includes ensuring they won't crash customer phones, although there are a few other restrictions: in-game purchases are banned; mobile voice plans and alternative marketplaces cannot be promoted; over-the-air installation files cannot be over 20MB; advertising is subject to Microsoft policies; and there are the usual restrictions on illegal, hateful, pornographic, gambling, gratuitous violence, excessive profanity, and other bad behaviour.
Developer-friendly: Microsoft is rolling out a number of incentives to get Windows Phone software makers onboard.
If those sound like rules you can live with, Chris Bright is keen to hear from you. As head of business development for Windows Phone applications with Microsoft Australia, he's been working to boost WP7's profile with Australian developers. He particularly sees opportunities for game developers, which fit right into the already clearly-articulated gaming-related target market for WP7 – which supports the Xbox's XNA development platform and can link mobile apps via Xbox Live.
"Anybody who's got any interest in development can quite easily and quickly pick up the environment," Bright says, adding that Microsoft has published a range of training resources, instruction videos and developer tools for anybody to use.”
To this end, Bright says WPM has been designed with a focus on things like transparency: it's possible, for example, to log into the web-based status console at any point and see the status of your app submissions, which Microsoft has endeavoured to approve within five days but often come through within 24 hours. And, in a broadside attack on Apple – which has often been slammed for cryptic rejection notices that left developers in the dark – Microsoft "will send a good detailed report that explains exactly why an app failed," says Bright. "We're trying to make developers' lives a lot easier."
Android has a controversial returns policy for its Android Market purchases, but Microsoft has taken a different approach by giving WPM a try-before-you-buy option – which allows users to download a full application, but only use a set portion of its functionality until they decide they like it and want to pay to unlock the rest. This makes developers' lives easier by saving them from having to maintain separate 'lite' and full versions of their apps, although it also means users are likely to end up with far-larger downloads chewing up their space – which will make so-so apps prime targets for rapid deletion if they don't grab users with both hands and refuse to let go.
Making your life easier is one thing, but making money is quite another for now. WP7 is reportedly selling well, but far-lower user numbers mean developers targeting the platform don't have the same opportunities at retirement-inducing sales. This can also complicate the business case for porting existing apps to WP7, as Voxel Agents' Matthew Clark, who is in the process of porting the team's popular Train Conductor to Android, points out: "The Windows Phone platform is nice but it's a bit more closed off," he says. "You have to use C#, for instance, which means our engine won't work on it. The cost of bringing the engine over is much higher than the cost to bring it to Android."
Conversely, however, there's always the first-mover advantage: get in early on WP7 and get in well, with an app that's priced right, and you could end up developing new versions of Flight Control or Fruit Ninja for WP7.
App Store: Windows Phone Marketplace
Supports: Microsoft Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile 6.5
Web location: HereNumber of apps: Around 3,000
Number of developers: SDK downloaded over 500,000 times
Some popular apps: Max & the Magic Marker, Uno HD, Netflix, Shazam, Need for Speed Undercover, de Blob, Assassin’s Creed – Altair Chronicles
Apps written in: Silverlight, XNA, C#/.NET Compact Framework
Developer tools: HereMarketplace policies: Here