For developers

Mar 11, 2009 17:09 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is gearing up to compete with Apple with its own brand of mobile phone application bazaar. Windows Marketplace for Mobile has yet to go live, but the software giant has made public details related to its strategy aimed at developers. Mobile phone application developers will need to focus exclusively on Windows Mobile 6.5, which was announced in February 2009, and will be able to turn to tools including Windows Mobile 6 SDK and .NET Compact Framework 3.5 for the development process.

“Microsoft’s decades-long relationship with developers has led to some of the most exciting innovations the industry has seen. We’ll continue our successful collaboration with developers through Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which will provide a broad reach to customers,” revealed Andy Lees, senior vice president of the Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft Corp. “With the new Windows Marketplace for Mobile and our great development tools, Windows phones represent an incredible opportunity for developers everywhere.”

According to Microsoft, through the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, developers will be able to reach customers in no less than 29 markets around the world. Furthermore, Windows Marketplace for Mobile will permit different marketing strategies and targeted pricing to be tailored to each of the 29 markets, in a move touted by Microsoft to help maximize revenue.

The Redmond company is ready to give developers no less than 70% of the revenue generated by each sale of an application featured on the Windows Marketplace for Mobile. But since the software giant is allowing devs to customize pricing for their products, it is also allowing them to offer apps for free. The introductory annual registration fee comes with a price tag of $99 and enables developers to submit a total of five applications. Each additional app will cost developers $99 within the same annual period. Microsoft informed that developers would also be able to turn to resources including Win32, Active Template Library and Microsoft Foundation Classes (Visual C++), Visual C#, Visual Basic .NET, ASP.NET and asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) for their Windows Mobile 6.5 applications.