14 DAY TRIAL // With the next flavor of Windows Phone, called Mango, Microsoft is expected to enhance the experience application developers receive from the platform, as well as from the WP Marketplace, the application portal accompanying the OS.
There will be several changes that app builders would enjoy when Mango arrives, starting with the release of a new set of Windows Phone Developer Tools, already available for download.
While those tools are meant to improve the application building process, a series of enhancements would be brought to the storefront as well, so as to make application discovery easier than before, and to bring the software to more users than before.
Thus, Microsoft announced the release of Windows Phone Marketplace in more markets that before. Currently available in 16 markets around the world, the storefront would be present in 35 countries as soon as Mango arrives.
The list of countries to receive access to the Marketplace would include: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Japan, Korea (South), Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan.
Developers in more and more countries are offered the possibility to submit applications to the portal, Microsoft announced.
App submission in China, Israel and Luxembourg have been already enabled, while the Global Publisher Program is being expanded in more markets, including 69 Middle Eastern and African countries, 13 of them in East Asia, and 19 central European countries.
Another interesting change that Mango would bring to the Windows Phone Marketplace would be the availability of a web portal, so that users could find applications easier than before.
“To better reach customers worldwide, I’m also pleased to announce today that Mango will offer a new web version of Windows Phone Marketplace,” Matt Bencke, General Manager, Windows Phone Developer and Marketplace Experiences, Microsoft, notes in a blog post.
“This will enable customers to shop, share and buy/download apps and games from any PC and send them directly to their phones. You get more visibility for your apps with no extra work. The Mango Marketplace will bring several new features and capabilities that Todd Brix will be expanding upon here a little later.”
Those developers interesting in building apps for the Windows Phone Mango platform should register on App Hub here. The new Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 beta can be downloaded from Softpedia here.