Wow, amazing, this challenge is now closed, 50 devs completed the challenge in just over a month, congratulations all!!  Cheers Dave

 

Happy New Year, hope you had a chance to relax over the holiday period and looking forward to a year of new opportunities.

nokia_lumia_800_wpFirstly, I’d like thank those who entered the Australian Windows Phone Developer Community Download Challenge, and to congratulate the 9 lucky winners who have now received their Nokia Lumia 800.

The overall winner was Sebastian’s “Fierce Game Hunting”, with over 28000 downloads in just over a month, well done Sebastian and a wonderful way to finish 2011. Be sure to check out his developer blog at http://dsebj.evolvingsoftware.com/ and you can follow him at www.twitter.com/DSebJ.

Secondly, Microsoft and Nokia are delighted to announce a new challenge, wait for it, drum roll please!!

Publish 3 new apps to receive a Nokia Lumia 710 or 4 new apps to receive a Nokia Lumia 800

Yes that’s right, publish apps on to the Windows Phone Marketplace and be a winner, but first be sure to read this summary of Terms and Conditions for Apps for Nokia Phone Challenge #20120101 (Full Terms and Conditions can be found here).

  1. Qualifying apps must be published between Jan 1st 2012 and 12 midnight EST Mar 30th, 2012.
  2. Publish 3 new apps to receive a Nokia Lumia 710 or 4 new apps to receive a Nokia Lumia 800
  3. The sooner you publish your new apps the sooner you’ll receive your Nokia Phone (subject to availability).
  4. Apps must be new and published to the public marketplace and excludes updates to existing apps.
  5. This offer is only open to Australian based developers who submit apps to an Australian registered Windows Phone Marketplace account.
  6. For budgeting purposes, this offer is limited to the first 50 developers who publish 3 or more apps and is limited to 1 phone per developer.
  7. There are a number of promotions in progress with Nokia in Australia; the apps submitted for this challenge must differ from those submitted elsewhere. ie no double counting.

How to Claim your Nokia Lumia 710 or Nokia Lumia 800

When you’ve successfully published the new apps as per the Terms and Conditions then email dglover@microsoft.com, subject “Windows Phone Apps for a Nokia Phone Challenge #20120101” and include the deep links to the 3 apps for the Nokia Lumia 710 or the 4 apps for the Nokia Lumia 800.

Stuff to help you succeed

If you are an Australian based developer or designer, then please register at http://wp.livews.net to request

  1. a token for free Windows Phone Marketplace Registration
  2. a loan phone for testing your apps

While you are at http://wp.livews.net take a moment and head to “Connect” and connect with other Australian Windows Phone Developers and Designers.

Optional, but appreciated to help with planning, from http://wp.livews.net/Pages/Events.aspx please register your interest to participate in the “Publish 3 new apps and win a Nokia Lumia 710 or 4 new apps and win a Nokia Lumia 800 Challenge” event.

Refer a Developer Buddy

If you have a developer or designer buddy you think would be interested in Windows Phone development then please refer them to http://wp.livews.net and pass on the details of this challenge.

General Tips for Entering this Challenge

  1. If you haven’t already done so, then register on Windows Phone Marketplace now. If appropriate, personal registrations are easier with less verification needed than a company registration. See the App Hub Developer Registration Walkthrough.
  2. Keep initial feature set simple and quality high, especially if this is your first app; you can always add additional features in future updates.
  3. Read the Windows Phone 7 Application Submission Walkthrough and Application Certification Requirements for Windows Phone, especially the Application and content guidelines sections.
  4. Run the “Marketplace Test Kit” tool before submitting your app to Marketplace. From Visual Studio right mouse click your project, you’ll see the “Open Marketplace Test Kit” option (requires Windows Phone 7.1 SDK), it will save time and hopefully streamline your app submission.
  5. Allow time for you app to go through the marketplace certification process.

Resources

For information on getting started building Windows Phone apps, support, training, blogs and more then head to http://wp.livews.net/pages/Resources.aspx