A report from PC World suggests that Microsoft may be planning to charge developers who submit more than five applications or application updates to the Windows Mobile Marketplace within 12 months.
Microsoft first announced the Marketplace concept last month and while the company has already said that developers will be allowed to submit five applications for an annual US$99 fee, this latest report is the first indication that application updates will count as additional applications.
A note promoting five free application submissions was apparently posted on Twitter by a member of the Microsoft Windows Mobile team. The note described upgrades and updates to applications as new application submissions – the first hint that application updates would count as extra applications.
Developer blogs are buzzing with comments about the proposal to charge for applications and updates. Blogger Long Zheng--who in September 2008 first identified Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile plans, wrote: "What this means to developers is that if they submit one application to the marketplace, they have only four opportunities to update that application a year. Whilst most commercial applications do not update as frequently as four times per year, much of the gem that's in the iPhone App Store and on hobbyist WM development sites like XDA-developers are casual projects and receive a flood of updates during its early days as bugs are squashed and polish added."
