News and offers for Windows Phone developers with MWC

Today, a post has appeared on the Windows Phone Developer Blog with interesting information and equally interesting special offers. I could not resist not to share with the community!

First, some interesting facts about the Windows Phone platform at the moment.

Activity in the Windows Phone Store has grown significantly - the maximum in history - with a 75% increase in the number of application downloads, a 91% increase in revenue from paid applications, and more than 1 billion transactions. Also, thanks to your excellent applications, the number of applications downloaded by one user has increased to 55 .

The Windows Phone developer community is also growing rapidly. Over 40,000 developer registrations in the first 90 days since the launch of Windows Phone 8, and we are already seeing 15,000 new applications that use the new functionality provided by the Windows Phone 8 platform. In general, a catalog has been created with more than 130,000 applications and games specially designed for Windows Phone UI and ecosystem. And we expect growth to continue as the number of Windows Phone 8 SDK downloads has exceeded 500,000 in less than 4 months from the October 30, 2012 release.

Dev Center App

Download an application that will allow you to access your Windows Phone Dev Center Dashboard directly from your phone:

1) application downloads, crashes, payments and key metrics;
2) detailed reports on the highlighted application, including translations of reviews in the selected language;
3) data on downloads and failures on the Live Tile;
4) the ability to send a link to your application without having to go to the store, copy / paste, etc.

Special offers

The Box platform provides an API giving the developer access to all of Box's content management features that can be integrated into your applications. What is available on offer?

A free account with 25 GB of free space at all times (instead of 5 GB). One (1) Enterprise Seat (including: administration, full-text search, and version history, accessible through a web interface and API)

Read more about the offer: aka.ms/wpdevofferbox

Buddy is a mobile backend as a service that allows developers to build applications and games connected through the cloud. Using Buddy, a developer can add features such as messaging or chat, a user account system, support for geolocation, photo albums, Live Tiles (and much more) without the need for server development. What is available on offer?

Free Buddy account with up to 1 million API (1MM) API calls per month.
The offer is valid for 6 months. After 6 months, the developer should start to pay at the standard (published) Buddy prices.

Learn more about the offer: aka.ms/wpdevofferbuddy

ExitGames Photon Cloud allows developers to create a real-time multiplayer game for Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 and other major platforms. What is available on offer?

Free Photon Cloud service (500 CCU plan) for 6 months.

Learn more about the offer: aka.ms/wpdevofferexitgames

In order to take advantage of these offers you need a unique code. Registered Windows Phone developers receive their code along with a mailing list for Windows Phone developers (Windows Phone WPDEV newsletter). If you have just registered, welcome! You can contact us by e-mail wpdevcenteroffers@microsoft.com .

These are offers from these companies, not from Microsoft. Additional conditions may be required in accordance with the requirements of the party providing the service.

Based on a Windows Phone developer update & offers from Mobile World Congress by Todd Brix on the Windows Phone Developer Blog