Friday 6 July 2012

Yes, the Windows Phone Marketplace is still broken.

Some of you may have noticed me complaining on Twitter that my apps are not appearing in various marketplaces around the world.

I’ve been testing this by going to the marketplace, and searching for our publisher name (wieser) and then changing the country listed from the home country that appears to various others.

Oren Nachman (who did a great talk over here in London at a Dev Days a few years back) suggested I raise a ticket so I did.  Here’s the question:

I've noticed that some of my apps are still not visible in some of the marketplaces they should be a month after certification. What's gone wrong? Missing apps include some or all of: Skied Demon and Bridge Stenographer, Travel Advisories in the following marketplaces (at least) en-AU, en-NZ, en-SG de-DE, de-CH, de-AT, es-MX, es-ES Who knows how many more. I don't have the full list of marketplaces... Can you please advise?

To the Marketplace team’s credit, I got a response in less than a day this time, though the news isn’t good.

Thank you for contacting Windows Phone App Hub Developer Support. There is a known issue affecting some developers in markets outside of the US, where apps are not searchable by app title or keywords in some country's marketplaces, and only accessible via the deep link. Our engineers are aware of this top priority issue and are actively working to resolve it, as we understand that visibility is one of the most important aspects to app popularity. The ETR is currently next week provided by the engineering team.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and appreciate your patience while we resolve this matter, and work to improve the experience of the App Hub and the Windows Phone Marketplace.

The good news is, my apps will be discoverable, and I’ll finally be able to pay the rent from sales of my apps.  Or not.

In any case, now you know.

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