Indonesia Finally Makes It To Windows Phone Developer Center

It was quite depressing to look at both Nokia's and Microsoft's efforts to get Indonesian developers to build apps for Windows Phone 7, but Indonesian developers hadn't been able to sign up for a Marketplace account, taking away many benefits that they could have otherwise had. That has changed.

Microsoft has gradually opened registration for developers around the world but  for the last two years Indonesian developers have yet to receive that privilege. Until yesterday. Puja Pramudya, a local Windows Phone developer, yesterday tweeted that Indonesia is now officially on the list for Windows Phone developer network. Pramudya is a co-founder of Radya Labs, the most prolific Windows Phone app development company in the country.

Indonesia sudah ada dipilhan #windowsphone dev center, pertanda yang baik ini cc @irvingevajoan@narendatwitter.com/poedja_p/statu… — Puja Pramudya (@poedja_p) August 7, 2012

We interviewed Pramudya about his point of few as an Indonesian developer building apps for Windows Phone platform. He talked about some minor setbacks for Indonesian developers such as lack of promotion, marketplace certification, and transferring apps between accounts.

He is very excited now that Indonesia is on the list for Windows Phone developer center, and he's happy for a very good reason, "We can now publish apps using our own accounts, instead of using 3rd party services we previously have had to use," Pramudya said.

If your country is not on the list, companies such as Yalla Apps can help publish your app as well as making revenue from it. This helps boost credibility and visibility for Indonesian developers companies in the marketplace.

Another advantage for local developers now that Indonesia is on the list, is they can get a good use of the revenue model available in the marketplace. Pramudya highlighted the fact that local developers can now use the in-app purchase revenue model in which consumers can make purchases directly from the app. Unfortunately, this feature is only available for the upcoming Windows Phone 8 platform and not Windows Phone 7.

Irving Hutagalung, Microsoft Indonesia's Developer & Platform Group Head told us that even before officially recognised in the marketplace, there has been over 200 apps published by Indonesian developers, including the ones using third party publishing service for the past 6 months. Hutagalung is very excited with the current number of apps from local developers, and even more excited to see the apps published by local developers now that Indonesia is listed.

disclosure: RadyaLabs developed DailySocial's app for Windows Phone 7, you can download it for free here.