14 DAY TRIAL // Next month, Microsoft should make available for download a new set of Windows Phone Developer Tool, aimed at offering application builders the opportunity to release software designed for the next Windows Phone platform, and it seems that the company is also readying new Marketplace distribution options for software developers.
Among them, we can count the ability to load beta or private applications on Windows Phone devices, which would complement the public availability of other software.
This would be one of the features that many missed in the first Windows Phone release, but it seems that things are about to get better.
The sideloading of beta applications would enable developers to push they software to testers so that they would be able to find and fix any issues the apps might come with.
Users would have to be registered by the developer via their Windows Live ID, and only 100 of them would receive the beta applications.
Any beta application would live only for 90 days, after which the final version of the software would need to be added to the storefront. Beta applications need to be free.
Along with this new distribution model, Microsoft should give a green light to the distribution of private applications as well.
This would prove a great option for enterprise users, as businesses would be able to send them a deep link to Marketplace so that only select groups of users with appropriate log-in credentials enjoy access to specific applications.
Apparently, private applications can be sent to as many users as wanted, and they can be either free or paid. They are not time limited either.
Basically, the same basic rules that apply to public applications were put in place for private applications too, though the latter are not discoverable through Marketplace searches.
All applications submitted to the Windows Phone Martketplace would get through a certification process, which should guarantee that they deliver the experience they should deliver when loaded on users' handsets.
