How should developers price apps in the Windows Phone Store?
As Bruce Forsyth would say - higher or lower?
Bernardo Zamora has published an insightful blog post on the Windows Phone Developer Blog, which goes into detail on how developers should configure individual market pricing - if at all. It's an interesting part of marketing one's work. Building and submitting the app is one thing. Effectively pricing your app(s) is another.
Windows Phone enables developers to uniquely price apps (using available tiers) for every country or region where paid apps are supported. This also affects in-app purchasing as well, so if you're planning to craft apps for Windows Phone 8 and make use of new functionality, you may also wish to configure in-app purchases.
Bruce Forsyth used to ask the question, "Higher or lower?" on gameshow Play Your Cards Right, which is what developers should be asking themselves when managing individual market submissions.
Zamora covers a number of points, including the first question: "Is it worth the trouble?" There are a number of factors to take into account when thinking about whether or not it's worth looking to set individual prices for markets. The main factor is looking at competition to see how other developers have priced their apps / games in that particular region.
The subsequent step is to analyse app data to understand regional trends. Looking at total downloads by type (free, paid, trial), region and country will enable one to determine which markets may prove to be worth the effort in customising the app / game price. From there developers are to consider whether it's best to raise or lower pricing and spot-test any changes made.
All that's left to do is to monitor customer feedback, app performance data and adjust pricing as needed. Dev Center provides tools and ways for developers to keep on top of app performance and sales and spot any potential negative effects from price alterations.
Be sure to read more on effective app pricing over at the Windows Phone Developer Blog, where Zamora goes into detail about each step.
Site News - HTC 8S and 8X have landed on the Windows Phone Central Forums
HTC announced the 8X and 8S today at its New York Windows Phone 8 presentation. These two new smartphones are the company's Apollo entries to go up against Samsung's ATIV S and Nokia's family of Lumias.
The HTC 8X and 8S sport new designs and implemented features that are sure to turn heads and demand attention - particularly the choice of colours and Beats Audio support. Both featuring LCD 2 displays and dual-core S4 chips, the new HTC Windows Phones aren't slouches by any means.
We've opened up two new forums -- one for the 8X and another for the 8S -- for these handsets, which can now be discussed as well as any compatible accessories.
Be sure to head on over to our community forums to mingle with other Windows Phone fans and voice your opinions. Why join the Windows Phone Central forums? Well, we're the largest Windows Phone community out there with bags of activity and a superb readership / userbase. There's never a quiet day and our aim is to continue this trend.
Rumor – AT&T to launch the Nokia Lumia 920 on October 21st
Coming to the US on October 21st? Not likely.
File this under wishful thinking and maybe true but BGR’s Geller personally posted that they’ve confirmed through sources the AT&T launch date for the Nokia Lumia 920. On Tracour, BGR.com only has a 52% average rating on rumor accuracy, so take this rumor with some skepticism.
The flagship Windows Phone from Nokia is reportedly going to launch on October 21st—a traditional Sunday launch for the company. In addition, the Samsung Galaxy Note II will launch the same day. That contradicts earlier rumors from the Verge and TechRadar who suggested November 2nd--the last day of Microsoft's Build '12.
That date, if accurate, is certainly earlier than the November time frame that many have come to expect. If AT&T and Nokia can pull it off, it will surely be a huge win for the OS and the Finnish company as uncertainty about the release has plagued them ever since the September 5th announcement.
Skepticism?
AT&T has not even officially announced that they are getting the Lumia 920, though it has long been speculated seeing as they are the “premier” Windows Phone partner in the US. What’s more, to our knowledge, Windows Phone 8 OS has not been finalized or released-to-manufactures (RTM) which makes this early date slightly suspect. We should also mention there is no finalized, official SDK yet either. That does not bode well for the idea that this phone is coming out so early.
Then again, with all the pressure Microsoft and Nokia are under, perhaps some late night struggling and corner cutting have been implemented to get this out the door sooner than later.
Or perhaps we are seeing a pre-order day and not one for an actual launch.
No price was announced though we’re going to guess that $199 on contract seems to be a fair pricing point for the flagship phone. Will Nokia undercut that and go for $150? Too early to tell.
Edit: Due to some personal communications with others in the tech field since we first published, we've downgraded this to a 4 on the rum'o'meter from a 6.
Time Sync is a nice little World time app for your Windows Phone. If you need to keep track of the current time in another part of the world, Time Sync should come in handy.
Time Sync includes a listing of over 6,500 cities and there's a neat conversion tool that will convert any random date and time for one city or country to another.
There's really not many bells and whistles to Time Sync. You have the main page that displays all your world clocks with controls to add cities to your list and to access the conversion tool.
Your local time will be displayed at the top with the date and a small icon illustrating day or night. In tapping a city listing you pull up the synchronization page that will let you adjust the local time of that city and see the other clocks adjust accordingly.
To access the conversion tool, you can use the button at the bottom of the screen or tap/hold a city clock to pop-up a menu.
The conversion tool has fields for the from and to locations and the time and date you want converted. Just fill in the blanks and the conversion is calculated automatically. Time Sync contains historical time zones and civil changes since 1970. The app also includes transitions such as Daylight Savings Time and records Leap Seconds.
So if you want to convert your local time on January 2, 1983 to the time it would have been in Adana, Turkey the conversion tool will do just that.
Again, there's not much to Time Sync but it does the job of time synchronization rather well. If you have colleagues located in another country or you need to keep track of times for an event in another time zone, I can see Time Sync coming in handy.
Time Sync is a free app for your Windows Phone that you can find here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Nokia Lumia 920 Pureview Camera: bad ads or bad camera? New evidence suggests the former
The Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone's Pureview Camera turned a lot of heads this week with it's very impressive low light and stabilizing features. The demo video and still images gave hope that a "knock your socks off" camera was heading to the Lumia Windows Phone line. But the video and still images have been dissected more than a High School science project with accusations that Nokia faked it all and the camera isn't as grand as Nokia would like us to think. But is this a case of bad advertising or a bad camera?
We think it's two separate issues and too many nay sayes are trying to mesh them together to make the Lumia 920 look bad. We believe this because the specs on paper lead credence to the camera's touted performance and most importantly because we've seen the camera perform up close and personal.
We believe the Pureview Camera will be a solid performer based on two things, specification and personal observations. On paper the Lumia 920's Pureview Camera has a 8.7mp camera that is fitted with a 28mm f2.0 lens. The sensor is a BSI sensor that has the wiring behind the receptors to allow for more light to hit the sensor. The optical housing is stabilized by a series of springs that allows for more stable operation when using slower shutter speeds. Having used similar technology on other devices and based on my experience as a photographer, all these elements combined gives the Pureview Camera the potential to be a better low light performer than other smartphone cameras.
There is always a chance that what is on paper doesn't translate as successful in real life. There is always a possibility that the Pureview Camera could fall flat on it's front element but we've seen it up close and personal in action and the performance quality is there.
New image samples from the Verge shows the 920 still out-performing the competition
To further bolster the low light performance of the Lumia 920, an old friend who used to haunt these parts was given the opportunity to take the Lumia 920 out for a nighttime test drive. Dieter Bohn from over at The Verge compared the Lumia 920 to the Samsung Galaxy S III, Apple iPhone 4S, the HTC One X and the Lumia 900. Dieter's conclusion,
"The Lumia 920 takes very good low-light images, the OIS compensates for enough hand shake to take in light to create a photo in situations where you'd expect none are possible. In near darkness, we will say that it took a relatively steady hand to get a shot without camera shake — but that's a very small complaint. While we were getting blur on the 920, we were getting vastly darker and grainier images on the rest."
I had to raise an eyebrow when Nokia apologized and admitted the footage was a simulation of what the Pureview Camera could do. Based on all that I know, I discounted the critics and felt the videos and stills were legitimate. The performance and quality results made sense. Then I remembered that most advertisements are simulations to grab your attention and it's not that uncommon.
From "Bounty being the quicker picker upper" to car ads that show mini-vans conducting high speed maneuvers. They are all simulations of performance with one exception. Most of these ads will have fine print disclaimers letting everyone know what they are watching is a simulation. Not having such clarification doesn't help Nokia and the footage and photos should never have been shown without such a disclaimer.
But that omission should reflect poorly on the ad agency, not the camera. Due to our competitive nature we try to associate one poor decision as an indictment on the whole.
Consider this, this isn't Nokia's first ad blunder. Remember the Beta Test ad campaign? Where Nokia boasted that they had finally gotten the smartphone right? Then a few days later the data connectivity issues surfaced on the Lumia 900 and it was obvious that Nokia didn't get it right. Nokia jumped on the issue, fixed the problem and while the ad campaign didn't make Nokia look good, the Lumia 900 is still a quality Windows Phone. We think the same will hold true on the Pureview Camera.
With the Lumia 920's Pureview Camera we know that it has the potential based on the specifications and we have a two reliable sources who have witnessed it's performance. That's enough for me to cut Nokia some slack for a bad ad decision and still believe that we'll see a fantastic camera on the Lumia 920.
HTC Windows Phone 8 devices will reportedly feature Beats Audio
Beats Audio coming to Windows Phone 8 too?
Although we thought Beats Audio was dead for HTC, the company is pushing forward with the technology and are reportedly bringing it to Windows Phone 8 this fall.
According to the Verge, the HTC Accord (a 4.3” display device) will feature the high-end audio technology with the familiar Beats branding on the back of the device.
With Nokia pushing their camera and ClearBlack display, Samsung with their super-thin phones, it appears that HTC too will have their own “sword” to slay the competition by focusing on more high fidelity music.
Since Windows Phone 8 allows more customization to the hardware via the OS, it appears that HTC will take advantage of this new power to offer some quality music devices with Windows Phone 8. Rumors go back to nearly one year ago that HTC was bringing Beats to Windows Phone, but nothing ever came of it.
"HTC remains strongly committed to Beats Audio and including their innovation in our devices. Any rumor of HTC no longer integrating Beats Audio into our devices is categorically false."
The question is, which do you value more? Your camera, a super thin phone or high-end audio?
