developers

Two developers, Justin James and Nicholas Yu (the latter making GoVoice)  have noted that they won't receive payments for their apps till February, which is quite far off especially if like Yu, your app launched with Windows Phone 7. Going further, the developers complain that there are no analytics to measure how popular their app is--in other words, they don't know how many they have sold.

For Yu and his GoVoice app, this is important because he wants to add the much coveted Push Notifications to his app (he already began rolling it out last week). But without knowing how many apps he has sold, nor receiving payment till February, he has to pay the server costs upfront and basically hope that he can recoup the costs. Hardly an ideal position for a developer to be in.  James concludes that for now, developers should consider WP7 a hobby instead of a source of revenue. Ouch.

Microsoft is known for treating developers pretty well--better than Apple and even Google--so we hope that they can at least address this issue before others start to feel the same way. On the other hand, these growing pains are to be expected for such a new platform--the test is to see how it is resolved.

Source: Nicholas Yu, Justin James; via BGR & Slashgear;

Further reading: Arktronic

We knew it wasn't much in terms of security, so unlocking Windows Phone 7 to "developer mode" to enable is now a done deal.

What this means for the community is now you can install unapproved applications onto your device, such as apps that modify the UI or access lower level functionality like the phone. The first recent example of such software was this augmented reality app that accessed the camera API.

Of course we still need an alternative Martketplace to distribute said software, much like Apple's Cydia. We imagine that this won't take too long, leading to rapid growth in the home-brew community for Windows Phone 7.

The unlocker, called ChevronWP7, was completed by Rafael, Chris Walsh and Long Zheng, with the latter two becoming household names by now. To enable the unlocked, developer mode, you simple download the file, connect your phone to your computer and run the installation.  Seems easy enough and we're told there's no risk.

Couple of tips:

• You may have to install the registry file on ChevronWP7.com, we did
• Make sure the lock screen is not on when you try or you'll get an error
• Yes, you an re-lock the device if you want to

Source: ChevronWP7; via Addictive Tips; Thanks, Ali W., for the tip!

In a new survey conducted by Millennial Media of 500 publishers, developers and advertisers, nearly 20% are planning to focus their work on Windows Phone 7 in the next year. The iPhone garners 30% interest right now but Android is expected to close in that gap by hitting 29% next year.

To put into perspective, Windows Phone 7 achieving 20% interest seems to be a definitive sign that developers and publishers are taking it seriously, that they have confidence in the platform and that Microsoft is really throwing some weight behind it.

We've already seen the app store hit 1,000 apps within the first three weeks, the Marketplace have 12,000 registered developers and quite a long list of major brands already available, all before the U.S. launch. While this survey has no guarantee for 100% accuracy in predicting the future, we're sure more happy than not at the results.

Source: Millennial Media; via: GigaOM

Looks like those lucky developers at PDC10 (see earlier mention) all received free phones today from Microsoft. At last count, that's nearly 1000 people who recived the Samsung Omnia 7--one of the most well received phones yet (other, non-paying attendees received the pre-production Taylor). While Microsoft skipped reporters in NYC a few weeks ago, it looks like MS knows where their bread and butter is: developers!

Source: IStartedSomething

We had a chance to chat with Jonah Sterling, Group Creative Director for IdentityMine, for a quick Q&A regarding their company, the software they have developed for Windows Phone 7 and their views on the development platform that Microsoft has laid out so far.

Being responsible for the official Twitter app on Windows Phone 7 (which does allow photo uploads despite earlier reports, more on that below), Graphic.ly (comic viewer), IMDb and SBB (train schedule), IdentityMine is at the forefront of some of the biggest name titles for Microsof'ts new mobile OS. If you want to know why they were chosen, please read on, as the interview is chock full of information and you may find yourself wanting to work for them--I know I do.

Take a coffee break and cozy on up for our 10 questions with IdentityMine after the break!

We're learning a bit more about that very cool IMDB program for Windows Phone 7 that we saw on Monday. In short, it's really, really sharp and many of you will find it quite pleasing to use.

The program was made by a company called IdentityMine who also works on Microsoft's Surface. We recently received this description about that movie database app:

New features include daily application tile image updates, panorama views, and the ability to receive IMDb movie recommendations by shaking the phone. Users can also find show times, watch trailers, browse photo galleries, get TV listings, find DVD and Blu-ray releases, explore popular charts and share movie information. The application is available in English US, English UK, French and German. To understand the complexities and deliver on all the goals of this project, IdentityMine researched IMDb’s business needs, user profile, movie assets and technology capabilities.  Over a course of three weeks, IdentityMine’s team of UX experts worked with Silverlight and Microsoft web services to integrate IMDb’s enormous database of 1,633,300 titles and 3,649,234 names with graphics with an interface that users could easily access, search, sort and engage with.

IdentityMine has made a total of six applications for Windows Phone 7 (Graphic.ly and Twitter are others) and we'll be learning more about those over the next few days, so stay tuned!

Although we've been impressed so far with Microsoft's execution of Windows Phone 7, not all are happy and we're starting to see why.

While some 3,000+ developer devices are out in the wild, that is a drop in the bucket of those who want/need a device to actually test their applications on in time for an October release. Of course, we get it: logistically its hard to make thousands of pre-production devices and make them available to developers and ship them out--it's no trivial problem for Microsoft. Nor is deciding who gets priority for the phones.

Still, at least one enthusiast Silverlight programmer has taken to his Twitter stream to vent some and we kind of see his point too. After all, we have maybe 10 weeks till release (!) and developers are still missing programming tools and hardware to work on. Justin Angel believes this is a recipe for disaster, where there will be a clash between what developers have worked on via an incomplete emulator versus how it actually performs.

Other have noted that this is just run-of-the-mill for any new software platform, as we've seen these type of issues on WebOS, Android and even the iPhone when they were being rolled out. On the other hand, Microsoft may have to do better to get this right, despite keeping on track for a holiday release.

We're not developers, but we do see both sides here. Hopefully Justin and others will be able to get a device soon, Microsoft can deliver some of those features for the emulator and we'll have some solid software come October. We should finally note that "big" developers (Netflix, Foursquare, New York Times, Seesmic, etc.) have long had all the tools and hardware, so this seems more about independent developers at this point.

Got an idea for a Windows Phone app? Looking for a way to share it with developers? Look no further than Microsoft's Mobile App Match.

Mobile App Match is designed to bring the people who build Windows Phone applications together with the end user. The site also has the latest news from Windows Phone bloggers, featured apps, and video showroom.

Already built an app? You can submit to the Marketplace through Mobile App Match. Do you need Development Tools? You can get them through the site as well.

It looks like an interesting place where developers and end users can get together and share ideas on app development and updates.

A few weeks ago, Brandon Watson of Microsoft let it be known that they were going to be sending out actual hardware phones to developers and too look for that announcement "soon".

Well, today at TechEd 2010, Watson provided further details and it looks like devices will begin shipping in July. How many handsets is not know, nor which ones, though presumably a large number will go out and they'll be of the LG/Asus/Samsung variety that we've seen so often.

The month of July gives developers plenty of time ahead of the "holiday 2010" OS release date to experiment with their software, so we can expect software not rushed to the Marketplace.

Overall, Microsoft seems to be, dare we say, executing this launch of Windows Phone 7 effectively? They're meeting deadlines, making progress and keeping developers happy. Granted, the road is still long but so far we like this measured approach.

[via iStartedSomething]