Microsoft today announced the Windows Phone platform has surpassed 9 million transactions, which encompasses both app and in-app purchases, per day. At the same time, the company revealed a policy change for developers: it will no longer wait to receive app sales proceeds from carriers before issuing payment to developers.
Previously, Microsoft would only pay developers once they received payment from carriers. After discovering that this was delaying payments 120 days or more on average for paid transactions, the company has finally changed its stance: all transactions via carriers will become eligible for payout after 30 days.
Windows Phone developers earn three times more revenue per active user on average in markets where carrier billing is offered (and six times more revenue on average in emerging markets where credit card usage is more limited), according to Microsoft. The feature is available in 26 markets so far, but of course the company wants to expand that number as quickly as possible.
Microsoft today also noted that its Advertising arm recently partnered with several third-party networks to bring additional ads to the Windows Phone platform. Later this month, Microsoft Advertising will make a unique device ID that’s not linked to the user or to any personally identifiable information available to third-party networks on the Windows Phone platform.
If you’re a Windows Phone user and that sounds worrying, Microsoft reminds you that you have options:
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The ID helps ensure that the ads a user sees are relevant. Customers can, as always, opt out of targeted advertising on Windows Phone via choice.microsoft.com. If they do, Microsoft Advertising will not serve targeted ads, and the device ID will not be shared with third-party ad networks.
Microsoft has also made some improvements, particularly in regards to finances, in the Dev Center. You can read about those details here.
All these changes are being made in advance of the holiday season, which in recent years Microsoft says has resulted in more than a 50 percent increase in app downloads and purchases. The company expects this trend to continue this year, and it wants to take its third-party developers along for the ride.
See also – Microsoft is working on a Siri-like personal assistant for Windows Phone codenamed ‘Cortana’ and Nokia releases Lumia Amber update for WP8: Better image processing, new camera app, Glance Screen, and more
Top Image Credit – Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
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