Bad stuff happens! There is no way around that. It’s a fact; your apps, out there in the wild on consumers devices, will crash. This in itself is ok but only if you can get the information about those crashes and use that information to fix the bugs that cause them. The Windows Phone platform actually captures stack traces and provides those to you, the publisher of the app. You can get a view of the number of crashes that are happening as well as download an Excel file with all the...

Bad stuff happens! There is no way around that. It’s a fact; your apps, out there in the wild on consumers devices, will crash. This in itself is ok but only if you can get the information about those crashes and use that information to fix the bugs that cause them. The Windows Phone platform actually captures stack traces and provides those to you, the publisher of the app. You can get a view of the number of crashes that are happening as well as download an Excel file with all the...

Misaligned elements is probably one of the most common issues I see with apps in the marketplace. In this episode of Top Ranked, I delve into why this is an issue and how easy it is to check for that and fix it. Alignment is a part of the overall Metro design language. I’ve even seen some designers in our UK COE group actually put post-it notes on their screens or on a device to verify that elements align properly. This acts as a sort of forcing mechanism for them to check alignment. The...

Misaligned elements is probably one of the most common issues I see with apps in the marketplace. In this episode of Top Ranked, I delve into why this is an issue and how easy it is to check for that and fix it. Alignment is a part of the overall Metro design language. I’ve even seen some designers in our UK COE group actually put post-it notes on their screens or on a device to verify that elements align properly. This acts as a sort of forcing mechanism for them to check alignment. The...

The About page is usually one of the last things you think about when building an app. It’s just not core to the whatever it is you’re trying to build. And yet you’ll soon find out that it’s pretty much a necessity for most apps. Not only is it something you can use to help build a better relationship with your users; it’s also something that can help you to fulfill some of the marketplace certification requirements. Having a place in your app that encourages the user to reach out to you...

The About page is usually one of the last things you think about when building an app. It’s just not core to the whatever it is you’re trying to build. And yet you’ll soon find out that it’s pretty much a necessity for most apps. Not only is it something you can use to help build a better relationship with your users; it’s also something that can help you to fulfill some of the marketplace certification requirements. Having a place in your app that encourages the user to reach out to you...

In this episode, I focus on another small tweak that developers can add to their apps that will help make those apps look a lot more like native apps. I’m referring to the addition of the Tilt Effect to controls. By default, when you add controls to the canvas in Visual Studio or Expression Blend they do not get the tilt effect. This may seem like a small thing but as I’ve mentioned before the experience is something that users will notice and their ratings and as a result your rankings...

In this episode, I focus on another small tweak that developers can add to their apps that will help make those apps look a lot more like native apps. I’m referring to the addition of the Tilt Effect to controls. By default, when you add controls to the canvas in Visual Studio or Expression Blend they do not get the tilt effect. This may seem like a small thing but as I’ve mentioned before the experience is something that users will notice and their ratings and as a result your rankings...

In this episode we talk about pricing and more generically about market testing. I know, I know, marketing is probably not every coders favorite subject. I bring it up as I’ve noticed many apps in the marketplace that are underpriced. Apps that are cool, differentiated or do something of great value to the consumer can clearly support higher price points. No user is ever going to ask you to charge them more for your app so the task of picking the right price point falls on you. The...

In this episode we talk about pricing and more generically about market testing. I know, I know, marketing is probably not every coders favorite subject. I bring it up as I’ve noticed many apps in the marketplace that are underpriced. Apps that are cool, differentiated or do something of great value to the consumer can clearly support higher price points. No user is ever going to ask you to charge them more for your app so the task of picking the right price point falls on you. The...

In this episode of Top Ranked I talk about Trial mode. Trial mode is one of the most important features available to you as a developer if you’re building a paid app. By implementing Trial mode in your app you give consumers the opportunity to take your app for a spin while ensuring that you’ll get paid for your hard work if a consumer sees value in it. We know from what we see on the back end that apps which include trial mode get 70x more downloads on average. Of those 70x more downloads...

In this episode of Top Ranked I talk about Trial mode. Trial mode is one of the most important features available to you as a developer if you’re building a paid app. By implementing Trial mode in your app you give consumers the opportunity to take your app for a spin while ensuring that you’ll get paid for your hard work if a consumer sees value in it. We know from what we see on the back end that apps which include trial mode get 70x more downloads on average. Of those 70x more downloads...

Note: This video is the first in the series so I spend some time at the beginning introducing myself and the goals for the series. To get directly to the content in this episode skip to about the 4:00 mark. When we launched the Windows Phone platform we released initially for the EFIGS (English, French, Italian, German and Spanish) markets. In all that was about 16 markets. With Mango we added a bunch more and just a few days ago we added another few. We’re now up to 41 markets where we...

Note: This video is the first in the series so I spend some time at the beginning introducing myself and the goals for the series. To get directly to the content in this episode skip to about the 4:00 mark. When we launched the Windows Phone platform we released initially for the EFIGS (English, French, Italian, German and Spanish) markets. In all that was about 16 markets. With Mango we added a bunch more and just a few days ago we added another few. We’re now up to 41 markets where we...