Yesterday, Microsoft announced its intention to expand the selection of applications in the Windows Phone Store by launching a beta version of its new online visual editor Windows Phone App Studio.
The new Windows Phone App Studio editor allows anyone to create an application for Windows Phone 8 in four simple steps: select the appropriate category on the Windows Phone Marketplace, add custom content, customize the design and publish. This approach to the development of mobile applications is quite unusual for several reasons. First, a minimum of programming. Secondly, Microsoft offers its solution directly, without intermediaries. Thirdly, the presence of an active account of the developer gives the right to publish the application in the Windows Phone Store. Until August 26, you can register for just $ 19, and in order to attract even more developers, access is also open to holders of a free account.
Todd Brix from the Microsoft development team also presented several new products yesterday. Among them is a simpler system for the Windows Phone 8 developer support center “Click to Chat” and a new payment system for six new markets.
Behind all this lies Microsoft’s well-founded concern. For example, the results of a recent survey from Appcelerator showed that Windows Phone 8 does not really attract developers. In addition, the Windows Phone Marketplace can hardly boast of the growth rate of the catalog (145 thousand applications against 100 thousand in the BlackBerry store).
A source: techcrunch.com