App Angles | Windows and Windows Phone Dev blog by Mick N

Amidst somewhat of a mini drama last year surrounding bulk app publishing I took the opportunity to reflect on what can be done. I like to think outside the box and this problem seemed like an open invite for some creative thinking.

In Thoughts on Marketplace App Spam I proposed a compromise to what I saw as competing priorities. One that allows the marketplace to demonstrate app growth metrics in the same fashion as do competing platforms, but at the same time, solve the recurring problem – which is how to sift the flour from the chaf, as Lucrezia Borgias eloquently puts it in Stray Dogs.

Brandon Watson dropped by to comment on that post. I had also forwarded it to Todd Brix by email at the time.

Todd Brix advises me today that he sees quality as Microsoft’s first priority.

It seems from Todd’s comments to me today and from what now appears to be a less preferable approach, of tackling the issue from a policing stand point, that the tooling is now at a point where more smarts can be built into the marketplace to let quality and growth take place organically.

In Thoughts on Marketplace App Spam I proposed that stats could be used to reduce the significance of poor quality apps in the store and increase the signficance of quality apps. As examples I put forward the idea of basing rankings on statistics such as:

• uninstalls
• installs over time
• ratings

What we see now, in Mircosoft’s What’s New in the Windows Phone Store post is 2 of these 3 suggestions are now implemented.

Apps that are downloaded frequently, pinned to Start, and receive great ratings will rank higher in lists like Top Free or Top Paid than ones that crash often, receive poor ratings, or are regularly uninstalled. Factoring in all these criteria helps ensure our lists are pointing you to the very best apps and games in our catalog. You’ll also see some new or renamed lists in the web Store including Best rated and New+Rising, which now considers not only when an app was published but how quickly it’s being snapped up.

Crashing often is another great way to distinguish quality. The Best Rated and New + Rising lists should also be well received by quality developers.

Microsoft also notes that intervention may be required by some 7.5 users

(To access the improved search and smarter lists, a few Windows Phone 7.5 customers might need to run an app called Refresh Marketplace, which will automatically show up on your phone. If you see it, just launch it and Marketplace will be seamlessly reconfigured.)

What pleases me most out of all of this is seeing an organic approach being taken to get the best apps in front of consumers faces. I say that because there are more important things for Microsoft resources to be working on than cleaning up the misguided after effects left by low quality developers.

This should bode well for like minded devs who focus on quality just as well as it should for the consumer looking to find interesting and quality apps as the store expands in it’s offerings.

What do you think? Is Microsoft moving in the right direction with this?

Windows Phone Developers should note their March 2012 Newsletter contains a link to a Survey which Microsoft titles: Building Portable Apps for Multiple Platforms.

As indicated by tweets today…

March #wpdev Newsletter – Survey: Building Portable Apps for Multiple Platforms  #wp7au

devs should note there are questions regarding intended use of C++ being asked in #wpdev survey #wp7au #haveyoursay

devs should also note questions regarding intended use of HTML5, PhoneGap in #wpdev and Mono for iOS/Android #wp7au

… there are some important questions being asked by Microsoft which I interpret as being closely related to developments published at Build 2011 for Windows 8 developer tooling and subsequent advice from Microsoft of gradually bringing Windows 8 platform components across to the Windows Phone platform.

Whilst Microsoft has not made public the specifics of how this will unfold in detail as yet, developers familiar with what was published at Build 2011 will understand how the following terms and technologies are impacting mobile computing in general and will be considering their role in Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and beyond

• Fast and Fluid
• Native
• C++
• .Net, C#
• Silverlight
• HTML5
• PhoneGap
• MonoTouch, MonoDriod

I would encourage Windows Phone developers who are familiar with these topics and the content presented at Build 2011 to take the survey and help guide Microsoft in their effort to understand your needs for the future of the Windows Phone platform.

For developers not familiar with what was presented at Build 2011, I would strongly encourage reviewing the vast material available from the conference that is available on channel9 and resulting commentary in the blogosphere. If you’d like some ideas what’s worth checking out, feel free to peruse my previous article Build 2011 Tweet Highlights for some of the announcements I found to be particularly revealing about where our development platforms are heading.

While reviewing the detail in 68 sessions from Microsoft’s Build 2011 Conference, I published some of the more standout announcements and observations on Twitter.

Of particular interest to me, was positioning how the future of Windows Phone Dev, Silverlight, WPF, HTML5, Javascript was going to look in the coming years from Microsoft.

Where relevant I included the session id as a hashtag and the time index so time poor people can go straight into the video on channel9 to see more of the related content as it was presented.

As time passes it becomes more difficult to access these via Twitter’s clients, so I pulled out all my #bldwin commentary and trimmed it down to the most interesting observations for posterity.

If you have similar interests and haven’t had a chance to checkout the content yet you should find some good ideas for sessions to check out here.

Following are the tweets in reverse chronological order.

RT @windowsdevnews: WindowsDevNews No. 0001 is up – slnews.me/smEGqv #bldwin

Blogged: bit.ly/w228uz Why Adobe Killed Flash Player for Mobile; and Silverlight, Flex, HTML5 parallels #wpdev #silverlight #bldwin

ty @richcampbell, confirming the burning question about #bldwin devices in Show #2 of The Tablet Show bit.ly/rKouRl ~10:40

Wise words from @john_papa on where #silverlight #wpf #wpdev #xaml #html5 developers can invest their energy bit.ly/tL1eXS #bldwin

Still have roadmap questions for #xaml #silverlight #wpf #dotnet #wpdev after #bldwin? — ScottGu 90min Q&A from LIDNUG bit.ly/ux8d0E

RT @jouniheikniemi: What’s new in .NET Framework 4.5? #wpf #wcf #aspnet #mef #entityframework #dotnet #csharp #bldwin bit.ly/t0Gb3h

if you havent picked it up already, that link spins off a new podcast from the legendary DotNetRocks dedicated to tablet development #bldwin

@timhuckaby’s bit.ly/qtHULi stands out for me as one of only four post #bldwin articles that truly resonate

Chris Tavares: “Javascript: the Good Parts – I don’t know what it says, but that book is very short” lol (not meaning to bash) #bldwin

watching Chris Tavares talk about how to make variables not be global in Javascript #bldwin #tool527c I understand the enabling … [1/2]

Jeff Derstadt & David DeWinter on EF at #bldwin – handing over code first production migration – not sure i’d let control of #sac812t [1/2]

At the end of some interesting WebMatrix info, free hosting for development from 5 providers #bldwin #tool825t

Vishal Joshi on what is #html5 data- attrib “its like this magic ticket that u can use for everything” #bldwin – that is a scary definition

RT @LBugnion: blogging: MVVM Light Toolkit for Windows 8 (preview) #mvvmlight #win8 bit.ly/pn28Gb #fb #bldwin

seriously enough by Microsoft for businesses to build on top of? or is it just that straight forward of a tech? #bldwin #tool800t [4/4]
priorities. I like the model and have seen it work in other architectures, but is this stuff really being taken #bldwin #tool800t [3/4]
but with “continued progress”, RiaJS passing but its “early preview”, now moving to Metro but taking guidance on #bldwin #tool800t [2/4]
Confusing message of strength for #riaservices. We’re a small team working linearly through client list. SL done, #bldwin #tool800t [1/4]

Asad Khan demoing early developments in RiaJS #riaservices use of #html5 local storage for partially connected apps #bldwin #tool800t 45:40

@jlzander: hotkey/toolbar access to VS’ 4000 commands in VS11… nice… sounds upbeat on future .net investment too #bldwin #tool820f

Pre-prescribed interfaces alone isn’t enough;but I applaud both Android & Windows for stepping toward supporting safe interapp comms #bldwin

I get the point that complex apps need to interact with more complex interfaces; small steps … and you’re not locked into Metro #bldwin

looking forward to messing with blend for html… interactive and accurate rendering seems quite a leap forward in tooling #bldwin #tool486t

12 hours straight of reviewing #bldwin opinion; Worn out; Able to rationalise truths that are present in most views with my own. Worthwhile.

Matt Merry gives an interesting internals walkthrough of the WinRT installing and launching an app bit.ly/pUxqnb #bldwin #plat875t

very informative session with Krzystof Cwalina bit.ly/qDTcMR .Net devs view of WinRT and .NET APIs #bldwin #tool930c
Krzystof Cwalina: .Net profile for Metro Style Apps surface area stats #bldwin #tool930c 28:30 twitpic.com/6posqe

Generated architecture diagrams look pretty handy in Mark Groves’, Tracey Trewin’s bit.ly/rftPKc #bldwin #tool794t

word prediction manifested as “INSERT” key replacing < > keyboard – positive action to accept – MUCH better than ipad #bldwin #app211t 31:20
number input pad looks pretty solid at a glance #bldwin #app211t 30:10

lots of #wpdev wishlist stuff in the metro controls from #bldwin, wonder how much of #win8 is being ported to phone eg x to clear in textbox

Paul Gusmorino – Custom styling opportunities of everyday metro widgets #bldwin #app211t 20:45

Good tips session by @TimHeuer for #Silverlight devs familiarising with differences in WinRT XAML #bldwin #tool515t bit.ly/oheLAH
The Noun Project – metro style art – bit.ly/eivfk6 from @TimHeuer’s #wpdev #bldwin #tool515t 31:40

Arik Cohen: Xml config to tell the simulator what licensing state conditions your app is in for testing trial, etc. #bldwin #app123t

Excellent Call! RT @gcaughey: Great! I was told at #bldwin this: Submit WP7.5 Apps today; Update 7.0 Apps in Oct bit.ly/qegjyq #wpdev

@technicaljoe pre-Windows Store distribution did get a bit of a look-in. Ales’ session covers it around 1:09:00 bit.ly/oBr9NY #bldwin

difficult to ascertain if Marcos Matos is saying XAML is a 1st class citizen long term or qualified for windows 8 #bldwin #app741t 1:55

Would love to have heard Q&A from Joshua Goodman’s #tool834t .net4.5 session. Anyone present recall if XP support was discussed? #bldwin
Joshua Goodman: asp .net uservoice was so successful, we’re now using it for VS and right across .Net #bldwin #tool834t 41:40
Joshua Goodman (.net core team) detailing few #WPF improvements; suspect this is where WPF/SL progress sourced now #bldwin #tool834t 32:00
Joshua Goodman gives a sense of the extent of logistics involved in getting AWAIT implemented across the framework #bldwin #tool834t 19:20
“you also have access from Metro style apps to a subset of the .Net API referred to as *.Net for Metro style apps*” #bldwin #tool834t 12:30
“of doing it through something hard like PInvoke you do it this natural way.You also have access to .Net APIs” #bldwin #tool834t 12:30 [2/2]

Ben Srour: Suspended apps targeted for termination by the OS is based on heavier memory usage #bldwin #app409t 3:15

@ddoomen dead is probably an excessive term, but i think the question on peoples minds is its future energy levels #bldwin #silverlight

hope the #bldwin video for #tool513t .net kernel shows up – would really like to get a sense of energy level in this area atm

Could this be the killer play I had hoped SteveB had up his sleeve with a strategy that would stand up to the compelling ipad #bldwin

Question will be how much of Windows can be left behind on an ARM deployment, and has/will that work be done in #win8 #bldwin

Metro only on ARM sounds very positive imo. ARM tabs could potentially be thin/cold/low power/light if the OS deploy takes advantage #bldwin

fairly clear on the .net / winrt relationship now… tomorrow xaml and silverlight is on the radar #bldwin

Very informative session from Jesse Kaplan and Harry Pierson. Clearly theyve had quite a journey bringing us great tooling #bldwin #tool531t
Harry Pierson “”…, we have a stack for doing user interfaces in metro style apps for you” #bldwin #tool531t 14:30 [2/2]
Harry Pierson “if you’ve been doing WPF/SL over the past few years, …”#bldwin #tool531t 14:30 [1/2]
Harry Pierson “We’re just providing new APIs for you to consume, via the Windows Runtime” #bldwin #tool531t 10:20
Harry Pierson “the CLR is still there;if you want to write a bunch of LINQ code;thats all running on top of the CLR” #bldwin #tool531t 10:20

Kieran Mockford:”believe me, running this demo the fan is going FLAT OUT just trying to keep the GPU under control” #bldwin #bps1006 1:03:30

“every app gets per-user cloud storage for state/settings” – sounds perfect if applied to #wpdev time trials #bldwin #bps1004 1:27:00

“icons are antiquated” … Microsoft really leveraging the uniqueness of Tiles #bldwin #bps1004 1:06:20 /@jensenharris

looking at whats been done with contracts closer I can see it addressing many wishlists for #wpdev, will be good when migrated #bldwin

Why

I was initially intrigued by the prospect of Klout.

I experimented with the service over the course of a week some month or so ago.

Whilst I saw potential for it to provide some useful indications, I met with a laborious process of starting to flag some small part of the list of tweeps who add value to my experience and found myself scratching my head at some of the conclusions it draws about what tweeps are talking about.

In the developer community I think we understand fairly well the limitations of semantic text interpretation (automated identification of topics of “influence”). Where I did see some potential for the service was with human assistance (+K). I then looked into the API because I could see some innovative ways to help. Unfortunately the capability is just not there. Perhaps there is even cause to have reservations that the whole idea of publishing about +K’s could just end up being a layer of noise disturbance on an otherwise adequately functioning social networking system in it’s ultimate evolution.

I expressed some aspects of this on twitter in the days that followed.

As weeks past, so did the occasional bit of discussion about the service and interesting articles to retweet.

I watched as people I respect expressed how Klout doesn’t like them anymore. How Klout doesn’t like their friends anymore. Who is Klout anyway and who put you in charge of valuing people and the “quality” of their contributions as Klout themselves so eloquently put it? The concept seems, well… arrogant.

I maintained an interest in how the Klout system is tracking though. As I mentioned, I perceived some potential for how it could potentially provide some valuable indicators under the right conditions.

So I monitored how it tracks from time to time. Curious in a way about the patterns it exhibits.

You can imagine my surprise to find today that my “score” has had a whopping 75% wiped off it! Clearly a substantial event had occurred.

I can only speculate as to what that event was. Did I upset an admin by not speaking in glowing terms about the service and get thrown in the proverbial Klout dog box? Did unlinking my other services from Klout some weeks ago have something to do with it? Did revoking access to all the unused applications on my twitter account some days ago and publishing that have something to do with it? I don’t see why. I’ve reviewed countless profiles of people online with scores above and below mine that hadn’t created their Klout profile yet and therefore had not authorised access to their twitter account. Is it some policy to discourage people from having a look, then taking steps to leave? I don’t know. I do know one thing.

Trust is gone.

How

Thankfully a friendly German Windows Phone developer and enthusiast, pointed me to how to remove my profile from the service.

To opt OUT of klOUT, as it were.

I wasn’t aware of this possibility, though I recall thinking it should be possible after reading the articles highlighting the privacy concerns the service is facing. I had previously gone looking for it – albeit breifly.

So, it’s pretty easy… just buried where you’re unlikely to find it without much diligence.

First, click the Settings Cog an the top right of the page, choose Profile Settings.

Second, pretend what you’re really doing is “learning more” about how Klout values your privacy by clicking the “Click here” link at the bottom of your profile settings page.

And you’re on your way to opting OUT of klOUT.

I love the cute and innocent puppy dog that shows up when people try to visit your profile after you’ve opted out. I especially love how they associate their misrepresentation with this innocence when describing what’s happened.

In Conclusion

So maybe it’s going to be the next thing to dominate regardless of whether it makes sense when you break it down and maybe I just committed the social-networking version of huri kuri by not accepting this organisation that presumes to boil peoples inherent value down to a number without so much as a do you mind.

Or maybe it won’t.

I want to not care today.

I value the parts of social networking that are meaningful. I like how people share within communities. I like how people contribute the things that are easy for them to share and I like doing my part to share what’s readily accessible to me.

At the moment, Klout just feels artificial and forced. Geared with incentives that risks influencing tweeps to try and speculate how the system works and shape their behaviour rather than leaving people to organically contribute with the quality that makes social networking already work well.

I like using social networking organically. I feel good about not having a reason to monitor this service for the time being.

Sorry.

I’m out.

Further reading

Here’s what other people had to say after I did a quick sanity check before posting this. I searched for tweets posted today under #klout. I didn’t read them in detail, but got the gist of where this is heading fairly quickly.

Why I Deleted My Klout Profile | The Marketing Nut

Lies, Damned Lies and Klout Lies | Social Media Today

Update (next day)

Klout has restored the 75% they wiped off my “score” and continues to store and publish my data despite me opting out via their privacy “feature”.

You may have caught some of the headlines that Adobe has killed Flash Player for Mobile devices.

A lengthy article was recently published by Adobe Chief Engineer, Mike Chambers.

I’ve been intensely focused on where development in general is heading for the past couple of months (details currently on my twitter timeline) so I read this article looking for Adobe’s reasoning and went on further to see how Flex’s path is tracking compared to Microsoft’s Silverlight. These are my take-aways and key quotes.

• “No matter what we did, the Flash Player was not going to be available on Apple’s iOS anytime in the foreseeable future.“

Though not specifically mentioned, I expect Microsoft’s recent move to drop browser plug-in support (including Silverlight) on IE Metro for Windows 8 tablets was a prominent nail in this coffin.

The story for Windows Phone 7 had, in the initial stages, been that browser plug-in support was the dependency that was holding up Silverlight and Flash in-browser integration. It would appear Microsoft’s recent IE Blog announcement “Browsing Without Plug-ins” would be a better indication of strategy now.

• Observations were made about tight integration of Apps, App Marketplaces and emerging mobile platforms.

• HTML5 heads for ubiquity in ground up browser development on recently emerging mobile platforms.

• And the following details I found quite telling (which I’ll quote in large part) addresses absence of key APIs in new mobile browsers(/operating systems?) and how this imposed on the scale of Adobe’s Flash development operations to broaden scope of their 3rd party interactions from just Browser Vendors to include Device and Chip Manufacturers.

“Developing the Flash Player for mobile browsers has proven to require much more resources than we anticipated. When building the player for desktop browsers, we can target well defined plug-in APIs provided by the browsers. While we do have close relationships will all of the browser vendors (including Google, Apple, Firefox, Microsoft), as a general rule we can do most of our development using the existing APIs.

However, in the mobile ecosystem, we have to work very closely with other companies engineers on a number of levels:

1. Mobile Operating System Vendors (such as Google and RIM)
2. Hardware Device Manufacturers (such as Motorola and Samsung)
3. Component Manufacturers (such as NVIDIA)

While we have good relationships on all levels of this ecosystem, having to do specific work for different combinations of OS, Hardware and event components has taken a significant amount of resources. For each new device, browser and operating system released, the resources required to develop, test and maintain the Flash Player also increases. This is something that we realized is simply not scalable or sustainable.”

Adobe stated, besides related lay offs and recent downsizing, they are shifting resources from Flash Player development to HTML5 (tooling, frameworks, browsers) and continuing work on their Adobe AIR app platform.

Adobe later offered their perspectives on it’s direction for Flex and HTML5 in the enterprise application context. Given the overlap between Flex, Flash and Silverlight, I thought this was some interesting general industry perspective to take in alongside everything we’ve been observing from Microsoft’s //Build/ conference this year. I found the messaging to be crystal clear from Adobe. The essence being that Adobe sees adoption of HTML5 for this purpose in the long term and is supporting needs in the current term via Flex.

Sound familiar Silverlight devs?

I find this to have a resounding similarity to Mike Taulty’s detailed perspective on Silverlight and HTML5 as expressed a year ago on his blog before the first “Is Silverlight Dead?” drama after PDC2010, before the seemingly reactionary Silverlight Fire Starter 2010 and before the second round of “Is Silverlight Dead?” drama following //Build/. At the time I found it to be an excellent perspective.

The song remains the same only now we get the picture that XAML takes the front seat as head of a broad range of Microsoft technologies to “get the job done” now, encompassing WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone and likely, soon-to-be, Xbox. This trend is set to continue with native XAML support in Windows 8′s WinRT.

I expect this pattern to continue for as long as it’s relevant, which I expect is quite a while.

The other interesting take-away from a general industry perspective is the companies innovating to expand our current capabilities are all investing heavily in bringing the same into html5 standards in parallel to improving html5 tooling.

Referenced articles and further reading (in order of reference):

Clarifications on Flash Player for Mobile Browsers, the Flash Platform, and the Future of Flash at Mike Chambers

Browsing Without Plug-ins – IEBlog

Your Questions About Flex « The Official Flex Team Blog

Home – BUILD | September 13 – 16, 2011 | Anaheim Convention …

Silverlight *versus* HTML5? Really? – Mike Taulty’s Blog

Silverlight Firestarter | Channel 9

PDC 2010 | Channel 9

I did some initial performance testing using the jquery slide effect to pan some largish images on various platforms yesterday.

The IE9 performance on a first generation LG-C900k Windows Phone device running 7.10.7720.68 was quite nice when compared to an ipad2 and an iphone 3gs running ios4.3.5.

Here’s a simple demonstration page.

Before any tuning is done to optimise the test page’s performance there is a bit of chugging on the Apple devices at times. The experience on Mango’s new Internet Explorer 9 was flawless every time, panning very smoothly.

I did encounter one issue with large resolution images which seemed hasn’t been mentioned on the interwebs as far as I could tell, so I thought it would be helpful to have something people could find when they run into this.

Somewhere above (3000 x 2402) and below (3500 x 2802) the resolution is too large for IE9 to display the <img src=>, reverting to display of the <img alt=> attribute. Other technologies were able to display the image in any resolution tested.

This page demonstrates the image with a larger resolution.

In June I reported my Thoughts on Marketplace App Spam while engaging in some forum discussion with devs presenting a variety of views on the topic. Brandon Watson kindly dropped by for comment. I followed up with a couple of emails to Todd Brix with background on the issue and proposing measures to improve the situation. During discussions I took the opportunity to delve into specifics with concerned devs of what should and should not be considered as spam and came to understand two key criteria that would apply to apps, irrefutably considered as spam.

The first criteria was apps that serve no useful purpose to any consumers. The second criteria was apps appearing in response to unrelated search terms.

Microsoft published an update yesterday which by my interpretation intends to address these concerns among others.

Key points to note

1. The daily publishing limit has been revised from 20 to 10. This appears to be handled procedurally at a certification level, but appears to allude to this being a daily publishing restriction that will also be enforced when abuse is brought to their attention.

2. Consolidation of official policy clauses that can be used by devs to verify concerns and report abuse, if warranted. This gives devs wanting to report abuse, the ability to self review criteria and material to cite. There are a lot of reasons why doing this makes sense.

In particular, 2.10 of the Application Certification Requirements presently states: “Your application must have distinct, substantial and legitimate content and purpose. Your application must provide functionality other than launching a webpage.“

Having investigated this problem in some detail on the forums with devs concerned about spam, I believe this clause, whilst subject to opinion, is effective in all cases of apps that will most widely be considered to be spam.

3. Warning abusers that Microsoft can and will unpublish apps, and in extreme cases, temporarily or permanently suspend developer accounts.

4. Guidance for making meaningful contributions to the marketplace when using templates to create apps.

5. If there is a genuine need, devs can make arrangements with Microsoft to publish outside the daily limit.

6. Where I feel the response is a little weak, is in relation to metadata keywords. This is partially addressed in Todd’s comment on templated apps, but is not specific about grossly improper use of metadata keywords which is not necessarily isolated to apps created using a template. Returning meaningful search results to consumers is important for consumers to have confidence in the platform. As far as I’ve been made aware, the keywords published with an app are not visible to us, which makes it difficult to confirm the nature of the problem when reporting on poor search results. I’ve been emailed some different search results following chats on the forums, one of which demonstrates as an example clearly unrelated apps in positions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 when searching for a wiki app. In other cases there are apps appearing to show in many unrelated searches, for example the optic illusion app, shown 2nd in the wiki search. I suppose for now it will be up to Microsoft to differentiate reports of poor search results being caused by improper keyword use or some search technology failure. At the very least, if it is Microsoft’s intention to address this problem, then I would encourage the “published policies” be revised to reflect this, since Microsoft has made clear, that will be the bottom line for judgement. I believe it would also help us devs to help the platform if keywords being used by apps were more visible and/or there was more visibility concerning the search algorithm in general to explain these apparent anomalies.

In summation, Microsoft seems to be treading very careful to not risk hindering productive developer activities whilst taking progressive steps to curtail abuse.

I can see points in favour of the approach, not least of which is understanding that the number of abusers is sufficiently isolated to be handled at senior levels of the marketplace team, rather than making more time consuming efforts in procedures for staff or engineering automated tooling to support detection of isolated abuse.

Much of Todd’s wording suggests to me that abuse is being monitored at a senior level and progressive action will be taken against devs choosing to continue contributing negatively to the platform.

Overall, Microsoft appears to be maintaining a reasonable balance of the platforms various interests and states it’s goal to “deliver the best experience in the industry so that your apps can thrive in a safe, reliable and convenient marketplace”.

If you’re seeing specific instances of this not working out, I’d be interested to hear about it.

Here’s Todd’s blog post on the topic: Taking a Tougher Stance on Bulk App Publishing

It’s not an uncommon sentiment, and there are likely to be different views around which I believe Microsoft will and should be listening to.

I’ve discussed the topic on Twitter and the AppHub and thought to make a more coherent case in this article. Please feel free to add to the discussion whether you agree or disagree, in part or whole.

The Story so Far

So far the story since Mix10 has been that the platform will have great search capabilities and the apps that people are looking for will bubble to the surface. The platform seems to be evolving with better search capabilities and if you listen to Windows Phone Dev Podcast » Episode 015 – “Winning With Watson” Brandon makes some good points in favor of keeping the submission process open. Two in particular stood out to me.. listen for comments on AltaVista and what else devs produce after their flashlight app gets their feet wet.

Priorities

Besides thinking that market forces will make the marketplace self-regulating to an extent, the first thing that comes to mind for me when hearing different points of view on this topic is a question.

What do the other two primary competing platforms do to address this? So far the advice I’m given is little/nothing and in some cases it’s worse.

This reinforces the view I’ve held so far which is that I believe quality (over quantity) should become more of a priority when app count is less of a distinguishing feature between platforms (with Apple currently boasting app count in TV advertising)… till then, I’d like to see search capability continue to be improved to help direct people to what they want and let Microsoft keep fighting the good fight on making the platform relevant in consumers eyes. Sad but true: most people don’t have time for details and it’s going to be the macro story that gets most people attention initially. Many of us will want to give Microsoft every chance at strengthening it’s hand at this stage.

I also believe there will come a time in the not too distant future that app count will be nailed and certification teams can start locking down on the value added by apps, particularly in certain keywords/categories where some devs may be submitting poor quality apps or stretched the friendship on current policies by excessively fragmenting apps.

Perhaps there would even be a case later for Microsoft making a campaign of driving marketplace quality up and app count down, turning the tables from being follower on what was historically the main marketplace metric to leader, redefining consumer expectations.

Could a Compromise Address Both Priorities?

While discussing it today on twitter a compromise for now vs later started to formulate … a strategy, if you will, for improving search capability now for consumers and preparing to improve on quality later through policy.

Statistics

Statistics could be collected now to factor in attributes such as

- “install followed by (near) immediate uninstall” ratio (a strong indicator for trash apps or poor expectation management in app descriptions)

- “time in market” to “install count” ratio (a strong indicator of excessively fragmented or improperly targeted apps when found in heavily populated keywords/categories)

- ratings

Let devs see the details of these statistics on their account, and how it (subject to tuning) might currently be massaged into a “Value Indicator” of sorts.

By looking at various factors such as these, it would be possible to filter out situational considerations that might lead to some apps being false positived for not having a particular statistic being usable or not (e.g. no ratings). A “weak indicator” if you like.

Search

When filtering and sorting in marketplace views allow this Value Indicator (or equivelant) to be factored in by consumers. Watch how consumers use it and tune the process.

Cleanout

Apps could also be flagged for removal from the app store if presenting poor value, particularly in heavily populated sub categories. I think we’d want Microsoft to be open about their thinking in this area before acting, taking feedback and where necessary giving devs the opportunity to review their approach before action is taken.

Scrutiny

If it were necessary, dev accounts could be flagged for closer attention if historically maintaining very poor value statistics – serving as a reminder if there were a case for anyone needing to be mindful of their approach.

Conclusion

In short if something along these lines were adopted, besides offering useful indicators to devs for self regulation, app count continues to grow, consumers would have improved searching capability to filter out what they consider to be noise and when marketplace app count is sufficient, stats can be used to drive quality over quantity in overpopulated keywords/sub categories.

In a way I think it follows the cycles of many strong businesses… there are growth stages where things are kept simple and allowed to grow organically, then the accountants and policy makers get brought in to bring back order and consolidate before the next growth stage.

Thoughts?

Update – Sep 2011: Microsoft Continues to Evolve Stance on Bulk App Publishing

Update – Nov 2012: Windows Phone Stores Thinks Creatively and Puts Quality First

You might have seen these referred to in @ToddBrix ‘s recent blog post on Windows Phone Marketplace on the Web for Mango

Here’s the links for your convenience.

Inside the Mango Developer Tools: App Platform | Windows Phone 7 | Channel 9 with @BrandonWatson and @AndrewClinick

Inside the Mango Developer Tools: Communications | Windows Phone 7 | Channel 9 with @BrandonWatson and Ian Todd

Inside the Mango Developer Tools: Search | Windows Phone 7 | Channel 9 with @BrandonWatson and Jared Brown

@MickNDev

I was late to the live broadcast of the Tech Ed 2011 keynote but did manage to catch this gem from an article tweeted by @MaryJoFoley Microsoft to add new business features to ‘Mango’ Windows Phone update | ZDNet while I was tinkering away on seeing what NoDo has done to IsolatedStorageFile methods (see my previous article).

I first asked about Secure Wireless Access Point settings (SSID Broadcasting) and Reset hidden cached WAP settings on the AppHub Features and Suggestions Forum when they launched and followed up again on it when NoDo release notes hinted at improvements in the area.

It looks like we’ll have it in Mango though, so that’s awesome. I don’t like broadcasting SSIDs and I’m not alone there.

This is a big one, thanks again for listening guys!