Windows Mobile App Store will be pricey - for developers

A few weeks ago Microsoft unveiled the pricing details for the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, also known as Microsoft's answer to the iPhone App Store. Developers will have to pay $99 per item listed in the store, and Microsoft will take a 30% cut of any sales revenue.

That all sounds reasonable enough, but blogger Long Zheng has discovered two interesting facts:

1. Developers who submit applications that are available for free download are not exempt from the $99 fee.
2. Application updates are counted as new submissions.

In other words, every time you submit an update to your application, you have to pay an extra $99. Even if it's a minor tweak or bug or security fix. Microsoft does offer developers a chance to upload up to 5 free submissions per year. So if you only have one app that you don't plan to update very often you might be OK. But if you've got a whole suite of applications that you're constantly updating, you'll have to pay up.

Tags: app-store, windows-marketplace, windows-marketplace-for-mobile