The App Hub was always a peculiar website: it was for both Windows Phone and Xbox Live Indie Game developers, it looked like it was from 2005, and the URL (create.msdn.com) hardly made sense considering its official name. When the App Hub went down for maintenance yesterday, we knew the Windows Phone team was up to something but we didn't expect this.
Say hello to the all new Windows Phone Dev Center. Effortlessly found online at dev.windowsphone.com, the all new online presence for all mobile developers is a completely reworked evolution of the App Hub before it. This time around though, the interface is a lot cleaner, a lot simpler, and a lot more powerful. The website can be broken down into three main parts: Dashboard, Develop, and Community. The dashboard is obviously where you can control the main duties of the Dev Center, including publishing an app to the Windows Phone Store (more on that ahead). Then Develop provides quick access to resources for development like code samples, and finally Community is the new forums specifically for mobile developers.
The redesign also features PayPal payments support, which means developers can now receive payments directly to that account instead of other methods. Plus, there is now 178 total markets supported by the system of which 115 markets accept paid app submissions. Speaking of multiple countries, developers now have more control over global publishing including the ability to set specific pricing for each territory and the option to pick and choose where to publish your app. Finally looking ahead to Windows Phone 8, the Dev Center has all of the pieces in place to support in-app payments which will only be supported in the next-gen operating system.
One small anecdote discovered in the redesign is a possible rebranding of the Marketplace. The Dev Center makes multiple references to the Windows Phone Store, most likely in a move to streamline the naming conventions across all of Microsoft's
For a complete list of everything new in the Dev Center, visit What's New page right here.
Sour: Windows Phone Developer Blog, Windows Phone Dev Center
