14 DAY TRIAL // Dubbed Mango, the next flavor of Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system should bring along a wide range of enhancements for end-users and developers alike, but it seems that some features will be missing from the mix when the platform lands later this year, and that support for in-app purchases will be one of them. Recently, Microsoft unveiled various changes it has performed to the App Hub developer portal ahead of Mango's release, such as the addition of new features for devs to take advantage of, or the availability of the Marketplace for more countries.
Microsoft's Todd Brix explained all these in a post on the company's blog, and he is also the one who confirmed that the in-app purchase capability will not be included in Mango, although it was one of the main enhancements the platform was expected to include.
“In app commerce has been on the short list of features we’d like to enable, but unfortunately it did not make the cut for Mango,” he noted in a comment to the said blog post.
This means that application developers will have one less opportunity to monetize their applications, while also preventing users from enjoying microtransactions on their Windows Phone handsets.
Although in-app purchases will be missing in Mango, there are a great deal of improvements that developers and users will benefit from.
Among them, we can count the availability of the Windows Phone Marketplace in a number of 19 new countries for end-users, and in 7 new markets for developers.
Moreover, Microsoft announced that devs will soon benefit from mobile in-app advertising market expansion. The Microsoft Advertising pubCenter will offer support for Windows Phone app builders in 18 countries by the end of 2011.
Starting next month, developers will be able to submit their Mango applications to the Marketplace, while the first handsets running under the new platform might arrive on shelves starting with the fourth quarter of the year.