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.
In an Aug. 22 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 July 20 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 finalize 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 Aug. 22,
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’ license 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 Aug. 17 release of the 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.”
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 localized 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.”
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.
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