Microsoft recently announced their own Marketplace that will be included with every device running Windows Mobile 6.5 on.  Of course developers will probably still be able to distribute their applications through other means, whether that be sites like Handango and MobiHand or through their own means.  You would think that would mean that Microsoft would make it easy for developers to get their applications into the Marketplace, right?

Well…it is Microsoft after all…

The basic info that Microsoft announced was that it would be $99 for the first 5 applications a developer puts in the Marketplace, and then $99 for each additional application.  Last week, istartedsomething reported that Microsoft was going to consider application updates (bug fixes, point releases, fixing spelling mistakes, etc.) as an application.  Basically, if a user paid $99 and released 1 application, but had to do 4 revisions, that would max out their 5 application credits and then they would have to start paying $99 for each additional update to the application.  The blog and developer community went crazy upon hearing this news.

Since the initial post, istartedsomething reports that first Microsoft changed it so that any application updates within 7 days of the initial release would be free.  Nice try, but seriously even if a user submits a bug to a developer…is that developer always going to have that bug fixed, tested, and resubmitted in 7 days?  Not bloody likely.

Finally, Microsoft did the right thing and dropped the 7-day limit and now allows free updates for certified applications.

From the source:

Q: Do I need to pay the $99 fee again to submit an application update?

A: No, if your application has been previously certified and published in the catalog, you can submit subsequent updates without incurring any additional fees. The application update will be made available through Windows Marketplace to all customers that have downloaded your application in the past.

Q: I previously heard that you only had 7 days to submit a free update. Has this changed?

A: Yes, we originally communicated that only application updates submitted within 7 days of their publish date would benefit from a free submission. After talking to the developer community and better understanding the dynamics and frequency of application updates, we have decided to extend the original 7-day window and make it permanent. This means that if an application has been previously approved in the marketplace the developer can submit updates to it without incurring any additional fees.

Well it took some pushing, but they finally did the right thing.  It is good to see them making this change and hopefully keeping Windows Mobile an attractive platform for all developers.  I am also a fan of their 5 application limit, free or not.  Users can install Windows Mobile programs without the Marketplace, so free apps can take that route and should make way for the quality applications to make their way into the Marketplace.

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The experience of searching for and finding the SDK, and a beginners guide couldn’t be easier.  A google search provided immediate results for the 6.1 SDK refresh, and a search of a well known community (MSDN) provided plenty of information to get started writing apps using the .net development platform.  Microsoft Windows is still one of the most widely used operating systems, making it an easily accessible native platform.

WineHQ has a write-up on installing Visual Studio .NET 2005 Express natively in Linux, but is mostly rated as garbage.  I suggest using the same technique here as installing the Apple SDK – grab a copy of windows and install it in a VM session.  Running a Mac you could easily run this using Parallels or VMware Fusion.

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