23 Days of Devices

February is already a short month and you have got exactly only 23 days left to participate in Microsoft’s 28 Days of Devices sweepstakes. This is part of the App Builder Rewards of the Windows Store AppBuilder program.

If you haven’t heard about the AppBuilder program, you should certainly take some time and check out the site content. You will find many useful resources and tools to kick-start, simplify or enrich your Windows application development endeavors and improve your coding skills. There is also support on how to publish and promote your applications. The AppBuilder Rewards program is a bonus feature besides the content and offers for a limited time points for completing quests, attending events and publishing apps to the Windows Store. Points can be cashed out to get Xbox games, a Windows Store developer account and much more. The following two graphics should give you a few hints on what the reward program offers to motivate app developers:

On top of the existing AppBuilder Rewards, the 28 Days of Devices sweepstakes give you a chance to win one of 28 Dell Venue tablets with your qualifying app submission. You need to get your Windows app downloaded 100 times by the end of this month and you will be entered in daily drawings. A few more details about how everything comes together:

1. Enter your Windows Store apps to the Apps Quest
2. If your app has less than 100 downloads when you complete the Quest between January 21st and February 28th, you will get a $15 Windows Store gift card
3. Use the App Promotion Kit, Windows Store gift card and AdDuplex advertising impressions to reach 100 downloads before the end of February and earn your chance to win one of 28 devices

It goes without saying that, the more apps with 100 or more downloads, will get you more points and sweepstake entries. The sooner your apps qualify, the more daily drawing chances for you!

You can check out the official rules for the sweepstakes here: https://build.windowsstore.com/rewards/28daysofdevicesterms

23 of 28 days are left. Hurry up. Happy building!

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Incentives for Windows app devs

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!

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