Over the last month, we’ve brought the Windows Store and the Windows Phone Store together into a single marketing and operations team to deliver a better experience for developers, end users and partners. I am looking forward to working with all of you in the same way I’ve worked with the Windows Phone community over the past three years. Our focus remains to improve the way we help you reach new users and better monetize your apps, all while reducing friction and cost. Today we are making a set of changes that will simplify doing business with us.
I’m pleased to announce a unified registration experience for both Windows Store and Windows Phone developers, available at a lower cost. As a result of these changes, Windows Store developers are now also Windows Phone developers, and Windows Phone developers are also Windows Store developers. Welcome all!
Here’s what you can expect:
- Registered Windows Store developers can now submit apps to the Windows Phone Store at no additional cost, using the same Microsoft account.
- Registered Windows Phone developers can now submit apps to the Windows Store at no additional cost, using the same Microsoft account.
- New developers can register and existing developers can renew their account using the same Microsoft account. Developers will enter registration information just once and pay a single lower price of $19 for an Individual and $99 for a Company account, providing access to publish apps for both Windows and Windows Phone users.
- Developers already registered with both Windows Store and Windows Phone using the same Microsoft account will receive a code via email this month, valid for a free one-year renewal when their existing registration is up for renewal.
- Students continue to be supported through the DreamSpark program.
You will continue to use the separate Windows Store and Windows Phone Dev Center Dashboards to submit and manage your apps. You can expect some differences in the steps you take to renew your account. The most notable for some of our Windows Phone developers is the addition of a credit card to validate all new account and renewals. You can read more about today’s changes on the Windows and Windows Phone Dev Centers.
Publish your app for both Windows Store and Windows Phone and earn prizes
With the holiday selling season approaching, this is an ideal time to tune-up and publish your apps for both Windows and Windows Phone to help increase your downloads and revenue. Last year holiday sales of paid apps grew 40% over baseline, and we expect an even more robust Holiday 2013 due to an even larger base of Windows and Windows Phone users with more ways to pay for apps.
As an added incentive, we’ve partnered with Nokia via the DVLUP community to give you an easy way to learn more and complete challenges as you develop for both the Windows Store and Windows Phone. Along the way, you’ll earn points that can then be redeemed for great prizes (for example, Nokia Lumia phones and more). DVLUP is currently open to developers in more than 20 countries. To participate, register for the DVLUP program and take advantage of the two new challenges available today:
- Publish a new app for Windows Phone or port an existing Windows Store app
or - Bring your Windows Phone app to Windows 8.1
I’m hopeful that the steps we’ve taken will encourage you to publish your apps for both Windows and Windows Phone users around the world. I’ll share more in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned.