Ars Technica has an interesting write-up on the rules and regulations developers will have to follow in order to publish to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. For the most part, Microsoft’s terms seem pretty standard — especially when compared to other mobile application ecosystems such as Android’s Market or Apple’s App Store — however, there are a few exceptions. For starters, a developer account will be priced at $99, which is slightly more than Android’s $0 price point but right on par with Apple’s iPhone Developer account. The $99 includes an unlimited number of paid application submissions and 5 free-applications submissions per year; additional free-app submissions will cost $19.99. This should, as Ars put it, “discourage mass submissions of junk applications.” Moving on, WP7 Store will allow applications to have time-limited, fully-featured trials — thank you Microsoft! Ars goes on to point out that: “Many of the free programs on Apple’s store are just cut-down versions of other, paid applications; with Marketplace’s built-in support of trials […] these free programs might not be necessary.” Right on. Finally, the store’s terms of service indicate that apps that, “generally fall under the category of pornography” (as well as several other categories), will not be allowed. So there you have it. Any Windows Mobile developers out there excited about the WP7 setup?
Read [Ars Technica] Read [Microsoft WP7 Developer Terms (PDF)]
