Microsoft Includes Costa Rica In Expansion Of Windows Phone Marketplace

Costa Rica is of thirteen new countries Microsoft will open its Window Phone Marketplace. The new countries that includes Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Venezuela are in addition to the Marketplace storefronts Microsoft launched earlier this year.

Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru, and the Philippines, and China are all part of the total number of 54 Marketplace storefronts where developers can sell their wares. This represents a significant expansion for the Windows Phone developer opportunity, Microsoft said.

Moreover, Microsoft announced at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year that it will also be opening stores in UAE, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Israel, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Microsoft also announced that Windows Phone customers in China can now browse more than 20,000 apps in the new China Marketplace.

In a March 28 post on the news, Microsoft’s Mazhar Mohammed – who is head of the engineering team responsible for the online store -- wrote on the Windows Phone Blog:

“We’re excited about all the new Marketplace locations, but there’s one recent addition worth special mention: China. Maybe you saw the news today about the Nokia Lumia phones coming to China Telecom. In less than three months, we’ve added 20,000 apps and 15,000 registered developers to our new China Marketplace. Here's a peek at the online store if you’re curious. “

Meanwhile, Microsoft noted that the Marketplaces in the 13 new markets won’t magically appear all at once. They will become available beginning March 28 and will be visible to users over the next several days, the company said. Microsoft also noted that

In a post on the Windows Phone Developer blog, Todd Brix, senior director of Windows Phone Marketplace, addressed the App Hub issue:

“Before signing off, I wanted to quickly address a question I often get: Why isn’t the developer App Hub expanding at the same pace as the consumer Marketplace? It’s a great question with a complicated answer. Simply put, it takes a lot of legal and engineering work to bring App Hub to new markets. We know you want to see App Hub expand, and we’re working hard to do that while guaranteeing a good experience for you. Setting up registration and payment infrastructure, complying with local laws and regulations, and doing all the other work necessary to ensure you have the tools you need to publish free and paid apps—and get compensated properly—takes time to put into place.”

Microsoft said App Hub has only been open for developer submissions to these markets since March 22, so initial catalog sizes may be small. The company recommends that developers should begin cross-submitting their apps for publishing now so customers in these new markets can start downloading them.

“We encourage developers in markets where App Hub isn’t yet available to take advantage of Windows Phone’s global publisher program,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said.

Windows Phone
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market. It was launched in Europe, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, Mexico, and the EPAL region in the second half of 2010, and Asia in early 2011. With Windows Phone, Microsoft offers a new user interface with its design language, Metro, integrates the operating system with third party and other Microsoft services, and set minimum requirements to the hardware on which it runs.