New Orleans — With an eye to the consumer market, Microsoft has unveiled the policies that will govern how consumer and enterprise applications are distributed in the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Yesterday, at its TechEd conference, the company revealed that developers would have no limit on the number of paid applications that can be submitted to the store. Developers will receive five free submissions per registration; further registrations will cost US$19.99 each.
Marketplace business models will provide for ad-supported, free, “freemium” and paid applications. Distribution can be public or private. Private distribution is available for a predefined set of people to review applications, which was done with an eye to the enterprise, said Brandon Watson, director of developer experience for Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft will furnish development partners with Windows Phone 7 devices in July, he said. Applications will be written in a hybrid version of Silverlight 3, which includes elements of Silverlight 4, he said. HTML 5 will not be supported.
Developers can port Silverlight 4 desktop applications to Windows Phone 7; however, they should optimize for the experience that they are delivering, Watson said. Windows Phone 7 will introduce a new interface called “Metro,” which exposes application notifications through tiles on the phone’s desktop.
Further enterprise functionality will become available through integration with Active Directory and support for policies. There will be more opportunities to extend functionality in the future, Watson said. “Those are just the tip of the spear.”
Microsoft is unaware of whether third-party component makers are building controls for Windows Phone 7, Watson said. “They all probably want to be first to market when the phone is available,” he remarked.
