Windows Phone Market About To Get Flooded With Freebies
When Microsoft created its Marketplace it permitted developers to distribute an unlimited number of paid apps and only 5 free apps, after which it was $20/app submission. Well that changed today according to the Marketplace Developer Newsletter:
During the past months we have been working hard to improve our overall Windows Phone Marketplace experience based on the feedback we received from you and our partners. We heard from many of you that you wanted a higher limit on the maximum number of free apps you could submit for free.
We’ve heard you and are pleased to announce that we‘ve increased that limit from 5 to 100.
Nothing wrong with increasing the cap but at 100 it’s an invitation to spam with free apps. Not sure I love this concept because the last thing we want is the Android Market. I guess the $100 upfront fee stops it from getting that out of control but I think 100 per year is a bit much since that’s essentially unlimited. What do you think?
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I don’t know – I think it’s good for developers who make a decent app, but have trouble monetizing it. I know that I tend not to buy apps without a trial available and will gladly leave ads enabled for apps that make sense. This way a developer makes a small amount of cash for apps that people use frequently and makes very little for apps that people don’t use much, if at all.
According to a lot of developers, they have made more by issuing a “free” version of their app w/ ad support than the paid versions of their apps, even at $0.99. Hopefully we won’t see a return of the old CE “Beans” type apps, but we’ll have to see what happens. I’m somewhat optimistic at this point.
The Andriod market is filled with many great Apps as well. Things we are not seeing in the WP7 market, especially in entertainment. Hopefully this move is to encourage those developers to at least create versions for the WP7 market. 5 apps limit may be a big discouragement.
To tell the truth I already feel that I have weed through enough crap apps in the WP7 market. Who cares if there is more of those apps.
David K maybe there should be a new app that reports apps that spam. After a bad enough repore the app gets removed from market.
@Peter: Marketplace is new but in the end they need to stay towards a paid model. I don’t have to justify it but I know developers prefer it and if they want to keep them, then that’s what it takes and they can’t have a race to the bottom (Android). Te Xbox Live games keep everyone at a higher price point and that’s actually a good thing.
@Stan City: Agreed that there’s a ton of crap already. That’s why I try to higlight a few apps when I can…it’s a pain in the ass and they don’t make it easy by making ‘new’ linked to the approved time and not when it’s loaded into the market…
Like DavidK, I strongly recommend and hope Microsoft stays toward the paid model. Apps would much rather get an immediate influx of money to compensate for their worth. In time the freebie section will grow and you’ll have people starting out there to find apps. What happens when your app is released to little or no fan fare and the “free but ad-supported” app never gets a sniff? Then you’re toast.