Microsoft Opens Windows Phone Mango Marketplace

Microsoft has opened the doors for developers to submit Windows Phone “Mango” apps to the market.

In July, the software giant said it would enable developers to submit apps to the Windows Phone Mango marketplace in late August. And it appears the company has made good on its promise.

App Hub

In a 22 August blog post, Todd Brix, senior director of Windows Phone product management at Microsoft, said:

“We noted last month that App Hub would begin accepting Mango apps in late August. The infrastructure for accepting your Mango apps is coming online as we speak! Some of you may already be seeing new content as we conduct a final round of tests. Stay tuned for a more detailed overview of the Mango app submission process within the next 24 hours.”

Also in July, Microsoft said it would deliver new tools for Mango app developers in August. In his 20 July post, Brix said: “Developers will need to use the Windows Phone Release Candidate (RC) tools that we expect to make available in late August to finalise their Mango apps and submit to App Hub. In the meantime, developers should get the free ‘Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Beta 2’ here.”

The company has since updated the Windows Phone Software Development Kit (SDK) 7.1 and has, as of 22 August, delivered a Release Candidate version of the tooling. A description of the new version reads: “The Windows Phone Software Development Kit (SDK) 7.1 provides you with all of the tools that you need to develop applications and games for both Windows Phone 7.0 and Windows Phone 7.5 devices. This download is the Release Candidate (RC) and provides a ‘Go Live’ licence that enables you to develop and publish applications to the Windows Phone Marketplace.’

Microsoft’s release of the updated SDK follows on the heels of the 17 August release of enhanced Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit (August 2011) add-on.

In a blog post, Microsoft senior software developer Jeff Wilcox, said the new version is “a great new release of extra controls and should let you create even better apps with the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK.”

WebOS developer grab

Moreover, Wilcox said, ‘In this toolkit you will find user interface controls like those found throughout the Windows Phone, with components like toggle switches, page transitions, picker controls and more. We have also localised the toolkit into all of the Windows Phone ‘Mango’ languages, since there’s a whole world out there hopefully looking to purchase your apps from the Windows Phone Marketplace.”

Meanwhile, in related news, Brandon Watson, Microsoft’s director for Developer Experience on the Windows Phone team, said he has received nearly 1,000 emails in response to his shout out for webOS developers abandoned when HP decided to shutter its support for that platform. Watson called for webOS developers to come over to the Windows Phone developer nation.