Apps Applenty

This first topic has been inspired by my experiences in the last few weeks in publishing applications to two app stores – namely the Windows Phone Marketplace and the Autodesk Exchange store.
The processes in both are similar, and the lessons learned will be useful in both initial publishing and updating solutions.  So, onto the application stores (by any other name), one at a time…

Windows Phone – emergencySMS

The emergencySMS application for Windows Phone will calculate your location from GPS and look-up a representative address to SMS directly to the emergency services and a nominated contact.  It's the app we hope you never have to use!

Registration
The Windows Phone Marketplace requires registration with a small fee, but development tools and an emulator are provided for free, giving everything required for publication.
There is an optional amount of paperwork to complete for paid applications as all Marketplace applications are registered with Microsoft in the US and hence a TIN (tax identification number) is required to avoid hefty overheads on revenues received.

Verification and Publishing
Once you have had your brilliant idea, written some code using the freely available tools (essentially Visual Studio and C#) it’s time to go through the browser-based submission process.  A Windows Phone app is compiled as an .XAP file and it is this that is uploaded along with assorted details including a description, classification (tools, social, games...) and a rigorous set of supporting imagery in pre-defined dimensions that need to be carefully created from emulator screen grabs.

Testing
The application submission guidelines are followed by the Marketplace testers.   Although initial reports of variations in interpretation abound, my application failed fairly on a well-defined opt-in requirement that I hadn't read properly.  Full test guidelines are published and available to download.
It takes almost a (long) week for testing to result in a detailed failure report or publication, going live can be automatic or manual.  Test reports indicate that the app is run on a number of live devices, not just the emulator.

User Experience and Discovery
The Marketplace is only searchable for review and download from within the Zune companion desktop application and from the Marketplace application on the phone itself.  This means you cannot share links for review or even get an awareness of the broader depth of apps until you own a phone or register with Zune.  This is despite each application having a "deep-link" web address that could be made public but only forces a specific page load in Zune at present.

Updating
Resubmission for failed tests or application version updates is a repetition of the submission process; meaning it is worth while to take copies of all the descriptions and keywords prior to starting.  The requirement to resubmit all images from scratch seems a little arduous but takes little time in practice as long as they are all stored and managed.

Reporting
The App Hub is currently (20 July 2011) undergoing it’s first major update, to fix issues (such as the erroneous “missing registration” messages I have always had) and to be ready for the upcoming ‘Mango’ / Windows Phone 7.x release capabilities later this year.
The hub shows downloads by date or totals by country, application versions, app crashes (none to date!), reviews, revenues and profile registration details.

Next will be a discussion of the comparable experience in the Autodesk Exchange Store…