Windows Phone 7 Developer Payouts in January

The Windows Phone 7 developer community is increasing, Redmond-based Microsoft confirmed recently, with over 18,000 registered developers committed to deliver applications for the mobile Operating system, and with a number of almost 4,000 applications already available for download in the Marketplace.

Both free and paid software solutions were added to the portal already, and the first fruits of this development work should appear in a matter of weeks, Microsoft announced.

To be more precise, the company has just announced via its Windows Phone developer portal that the first payouts for Windows Phone 7 sales will be made in January, earlier than initially planned.

“Back in October I shared that developer payouts for app and game sales would begin in February. We are pleased to now announce that the first payouts for Windows Phone 7 sales will be made in the 4th week of January 2011,” Microsoft's Todd Brix announced.

“This payout will include payment for all sales of Windows Phone 7 apps and games that occurred after the phones became available in October 2010 through the end of December 2010,” he continues.

Following January 2011, Windows Phone 7 developer payouts should be processed on a monthly basis, for sales of all Windows Phone 6.x and Windows Phone 7 apps.

But this is not all, Microsoft says. In its attempt to enhance the experience offered to developers as much as possible, the company is offering now individual insights into how an application performs in the Marketplace.

Developers will find a “Reports” link on their account in App Hub, through which they can access up-to-date download and transaction reporting information for all of the applications or games they submitted to the Marketplace.

According to Todd Brix, two types of reports are available:

- Download Reports that provide graphical views of daily and cumulative downloads as well as raw data break-downs
- Payout Reports that provide aggregated and detailed views of payouts for all Marketplace applications (including sales on Marketplace for Windows Phone 6.x)

App builders will also be able to create custom views and apply filters, so that they receive the info they want. One can filter reports by date, country and application.