Do you have a hard time keeping track about all the goodies available for Windows Phone and Windows Store app developers? There are many opportunities out there to get free training or even get incentives for your Windows/ Windows Phone application development activities. You are not on your own when taking the first step to dive into Windows Phone/Windows Store app development and if you are ready to submit your app to the app store, you may even get rewarded for your hard work on your app with a little extra bonus. Let’s take a look at some of the offerings!
Keep the Cash
If you want to participate in Microsoft’s “Keep the Cash” opportunity, you have to act pretty quick! This offer ends June 30th, 2013. You get a chance to enter up to 10 apps per Store, Windows Store and/or Windows Phone Store, and get a $100 virtual Visa card for each application that qualifies.
You can find out more about the official Keep the Cash Terms and Conditions here.
App Builder Virtual Summit
If you missed the App Builder Virtual Summit in May, the summit videos are now available for streaming on demand. You can learn the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of designing, building and marketing an app for Windows 8 and Windows Phone. It is certainly interesting to listen to first-hand experiences of developers, who have actually done it and want to share their thoughts.
Connect with your local Technical Evangelist
You have the option to meet your local Microsoft technical evangelist to get some help and guidance for your app development or idea. You can check out their office hours here.
Windows Store App Lab
In case you need to test your awesome Windows app on Windows 8 devices, Microsoft offers an amazing test environment calles Windows Store App Labs. These are physical locations in more than 30 cities where you can access Windows 8 devices, get design help, and meet with Windows experts to make your app even more awesome! You can search for the lab locations here.
Last but not least…
If you are excited about all these developer opportunities, but just need some design inspiration, I suggest you check out the case studies of some Windows applications. There is also information out there about the Windows UX patterns to guide you through your application design and development. But before you start the actual development, you may also want to check out how to create apps that run on Windows Phone and on Windows to get an idea of how you could create reusable code for both environments.
Happy coding!
Daydreaming Crocus 