As Windows Phone devices slowly but surely gain market share on Android and iOS products, Microsoft is also seeking to expand the markets available for Windows Phone app developers. Today, the company revealed some more efforts it has made to help app makers for those phones.
In a post on the Windows Phone developer blog, Microsoft said that app makers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Montenegro, Serbia, Timor-Leste, and Ukraine can now submit their apps for publishing in the Windows Phone Store. This brings the total number of Windows Phone app developer countries that support payouts to 122. The number of countries that can actually download a free or paid Windows Phone app is now at 191.
Microsoft also announced that the total worldwide number of mobile operator billing partners for Windows Phone has gone up to 25 in 19 markets, up from just 15 in August 2012. Microsoft claims this number of billing partners exceeds that of Google Play. Microsoft says:
Mobile operator billing gives consumers a payment option with significantly higher conversion rates than credit cards. On average, an app developer earns 3x more per active user on a paid app published in a mobile operator billing-enabled market than a market that only supports credit cards.
Finally, Microsoft is promising that the Windows Phone Dev Center will soon have some more improvements and additions, including a way to review an app submission before making a decision to actually submit it for consideration by Microsoft.
Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft