A little nerd humor for the day. I got asked by some executives to “prove” that what we were doing was working.  That wasn’t so hard.  The next question was “how would you show return on investment for additional budget.”  I thought on it for a few moments, and wrote the following on the board.  The engineers got it.

That’s a screen grab from Visual Studio, which is now my desktop image.

I later shared this with some of my developer buddies.  What ensued is also pretty funny:

Friend 1: “Shouldn’t that be a property (e.g., Developers.AreHappy)?”

Friend 2: “It could be a complex function returning different values depending on the level of Developer.Fickle property."

Friend 1: “The FxCops will come after you for violating policy CA1024.  To Friend 2’s point, you could get a reprieve if making devs happy is a time-intensive operation. If that’s the case, however, you should review your entire architecture and implementation.”

I love my nerdy friends.

I have been asked by a few people how sites like WP7AppList get their data.  The Windows Phone Marketplace, which you access on your PC via Zune software, uses XML to get data over the wire.  I wanted to share a couple of code snippets which might help an erstwhile data junkie on their way.  This code works.  It may not be the most elegant solution, but it works, and I wanted to share it with others in case they wanted to see how to parse the XML, or how to write LINQ queries against it.

Caveat – this is a geek enthusiast post.  I used Fiddler to figure out how to parse the XML.  This was something I did over Christmas break to give me a project about which I could be excited, and learn some more about parsing XML with LINQ.  I also wanted to do some large database stuff, and this crawler throws off a ton of data.  I did not use an proprietary knowledge about how our backend systems are working.  This is all done against the public XML feeds.

First up, we are going to need to create some data structures to catch all of the inbound data.  You can use anonymous types with LINQ, but I liked having a measure of control, and having the ability to handle null values and potential errors in the feed.

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One theme that surfaced for me at SxSW this week was the incredible amount of energy being expended trying to find developers for projects.  It certainly is a theme that should help the guys at StackExchange, if only they figure out how to reach this audience.  I was in so many rooms where the number of companies with ideas needing devs outnumbered the developers in the room – sometimes as high as 25x in a single room.

At first I thought that this was a systemic problem with SxSW.  I’m not sure I have the data to support that conclusion, but there was a different problem afoot.  Each and every one of these entities with ideas was going about their developer search completely wrong.  Showing up with an iPad with large font text saying “I need devs” is not a good marketing strategy.

I also met quite a few companies trying to hawk their API wares and didn’t know how to go about getting developers excited.  The skill set I have been building over my working career is understanding the mind of the developer, and how to reach them.  I wanted to share this out so that others can reduce what was perceived as frustration as a lack of ability to find developers or get them excited about a project they had.

Go Where Developers Are

It’s a bit of an obvious statement, but seriously, if you are a company looking for developers, go where they go.  If you are at SxSW, they may not be at the meetups.  Why?  Because they are off demoing/showing their apps.  They are at these broader events for the same reason you are – to do business.  Developers are in hot demand right now, and that supply/demand imbalance dictates that they are not only busy, but not partial to interruptions.

Go where they go.  Is there a local iPhone developer group in your area?  What about a technology specific show (PyCon FTW)?  If the developers are at the event to learn versus to do business, you are likely better off.

Be a Coder

I got called a “marketing douchebag” on a panel at SxSW.  I tried not to take offense.  I am a product manager after all.  However, I am a hobbyist coder.  How can you be a developer marketer and not be?  I love spending time writing code to make something cool.  Is my solution the most elegant and efficient?  Probably not.  Can I wax philosophically about string interpolation of C#?  I can now (thanks Miguel).

If you cannot speak the language, or understand the issues, how can you have a constructive conversation?  More importantly, it’s just not as hard as you think.  Seriously.  We have a Windows Phone series for absolute beginners.  I know the notion of downloading tools may seem scary.  Try it.  Most of the dev communities have walk throughs to make it mostly doable by anyone who can install Office.  If you can wrangle an XLS, you can likely get through some of the really beginner stuff.  You may even like it.  Net net, being credible in conversations in the dev user groups means at least being conversant.

Have a Prototype

Even if your design is awful, getting your concept across with working code is FAR FAR FAR more effective than PowerPoint slides or your highly polished 25 words or less routine.  Here’s a secret about developers – any one worth their salt will see what you have and want to make it better.  They may want to join your project, or they may just give you some tips on how to improve on what you are showing so that the next dev who sees it may get interested.  Either way, you get some good feedback which is actionable by you.  You are more likely to not change your slides or 25 word pitch, and just move on to the next developer, but getting actionable feedback from a developer is priceless.

The other benefit of having a prototype – a completely unpolished turd even – means you have had to communicate your ideas to the screen.  That will show you the flaws in what you are trying to explain in words or PowerPoint, and makes for a much more constructive conversation with potential devs.  Your idea gets better simply by trying to work through it on the screen.

So there you go.  I hope that’s helpful for all the non-technical types looking to get to the dev community.  It’s a great time to be a developer, and so much positive energy around projects.

I normally post about technology here.  Business.  Entrepreneurship.  Customer service certainly has a place.  Today gets a personal rant, with lessons applicable to the above.  The short story is that I meant to have flowers delivered on Monday to my wife, and only today found out that ProFlowers would not be able to fulfill the order because they had no local vendor.  For the tl;dr crowd, here are the key lessons:

1. Don’t take money before you can fulfill the contract – The mere fact that ProFlowers took my money without a way to fulfill my order is crazy.  The fact that all of my interactions with them since Monday indicated none of this makes it even worse.
2. Bad customer service will be cemented in search indexes – I let the woman know on the phone that the days of hanging up on an upset customer were done.  I am codifying this here.  I have set up a Facebook group.  I will request that my tweeps retweet this whole ProFlowers debacle.
3. If you are in the business of delivering happiness, deliver! – Having a scripted response for a call center makes sense.  However, the flowers I needed on Monday were to handle an issue on Monday.  With each passing day, the value of those flowers decreases quite a bit.  Flowers can bring joy, but lack of flowers can actually create problems.
4. Flowers are not harder than pizzas – It’s not like it was some crazy arrangement that was ordered.  Roses.  How hard it is to cut some flowers and get them delivered?  I was told that I was in a remote area.  I live 10 miles from the Microsoft campus.  Hardly remote.  The pizza guy can get here in 30 minutes, and they actually have to bake the thing.

The story begins on Monday morning.  I ordered flowers to be delivered because I have been working quite hard, and traveling quite a bit.  With yet another trip coming up for SxSW, I figured it would be a smart move to have the flowers delivered.

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We’ve made no secret of the fact that we believe we have a great platform for developers.  The canvas we have delivered is enabling amazing creativity to flourish.  Some developers, however, have taken a wait and see approach to developing for Windows Phone.  For those who have taken the plunge, some developers are making more money on Windows Phone 7 than Android, even though we have less handsets in market.

Yes, this is a data point of one, but it’s a public data point about which we can talk.  There are many more stories like this on the horizon, but this is the first one that is verified by a third party.

Fruit Ninja has made 7x more money on Windows Phone 7 than Android.

That is the claim of the article.  Why is this?  There are many potential reasons, and I don’t want to venture into what could quickly devolve into a discussion based on opinions.  What we can say is that the data shows that the Windows Phone Marketplace works for developers.  It shows that customers of Windows Phone are spending money to buy apps.  It shows that that Windows Phone has great potential.

UPDATE (03/09/11 11:20A): The Xylogic data is what it is.  I won’t vouch for it, so short of taking this post down, I can only say that I cannot verify their Android data.  Is it a fair assumption that any overstatement/understatement they make for Windows Phone is same for Android?  Maybe.  I am not going to surface Fruit Ninja numbers as that’s not my place.  Unless Xylogic made a mistake in our favor (overstating $$ on Windows Phone) and against Android (understating $$ on Android), the ratio will hold.

Besides, and here’s the point that everyone seems to be missing – we have sold way fewer phones and Android.  Way.  Even if we were at parity on revenues, which platform is more appealing?  Don’t let the source of the data get in the way of the undeniable fact: the dynamics and structure of the marketplace on Android creates a challenge for developers to make money.  When Angry Birds can’t make money with per unit sales, that’s a sign. [END UPDATE]

We are still learning, and will continue to share what we learn with our developer community about what apps are working, how to market their apps, get noticed, etc.  However, the fact remains that for this developer, Windows Phone 7 has been well worth their time.

The smart money is to bet on the train that is leaving the station, not the one that’s gone.  Again, public data point of one, but this train is picking up steam.  As CNet noted, our mobile fortunes are tied to app developers.  Getting developers info like this is incredibly important to demonstrating that Windows Phone is a viable, credible, profitable platform for developers.  We will turn ourselves inside out to get developers whatever they need to be successful.

Still on the fence?  If you are an Android developer, and looking for a switch, reach out to us.  For developers committed to building on Windows Phone, we will take care of you.  Every developer matters.

Today, we posted a new article up at the Windows Phone Developer Blog about how developers are having great results using the Trial API and Microsoft Mobile Ad control.  The most astonishing piece of data for me what that more than half of the Trial API apps convert to a sale within one day, and most of those within 2 hours of the download.

While the stories of existing devs having great success is music to my ears, what’s really exciting for me is the expansion of the geographies which can support developers.  We have just announced our Global Publishing Program, which allows us to extend the ability to be a published Windows Phone 7 developer to countries where we do not yet have Marketplace.

Publishers will sign up to support an entire region, allowing developers to submit applications to Marketplace through the publisher.  We have launched with our first partner, Yalla Apps, a new publisher supporting the Middle East and Africa region.  So what new countries can we support?  Here’s the list:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, French Polynesia, Gabon, Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, New Caledonia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Reunion, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Israel & Egypt were our top 5 countries in terms of tools downloads from that list, representing multiple tens of thousands of developers.  Now each and every one of them can start publishing their amazing apps and games for Windows Phone.  This also means that the 3 developers in Somalia, 2 in Equatorial Guinea and Swaziland, and the 1 developer in Central African Republic, who have downloaded our tools, well, we now have a solution for you.  In fact, if you are one of the 8 developers in one of those countries, reach out to me – I’d love to hear your story.

More country support is coming.  We are listening to each and every one of you and working like mad to ensure that every developer who wants to build for Windows Phone 7 can.  Every developer matters.

I love Scoble.  I really do.  He’s a great source of content, and occasionally controversy.  In a post today, he suggests that developers should build for Android tablets.  I am left a little confused as to his overall logic train, so let’s poke at a few of his points.

The Bar is Low

Really?  The last time I checked, developers were not the types who wanted to walk into a room barely filled with mediocre people and declare themselves the best.  The lure of trying to unseat Angry Birds is a strong siren song.  Using Robert’s logic, the ones who couldn’t cut it are currently developing for Android tablets, so you should go hang out with them.

Crowds = Death

This is fairly well reasoned notion.  Having to deal with immediate scale is killer.  Robert is pointing to the Twitterati as the arbiters of a developer’s success.  What he doesn’t take into account is that editorial selection from the AppStore tribunal would result in a similar challenge to scale.

Hard Earned Dollars Results in Scrapiness

This is a true statement.  However, the uber point is lost in his analysis.  Android is a more difficult platform on which to monetize.  No amount of scrapiness is going to overcome flawed platform decisions.  You can be pretty scrappy when you are making no money on a platform designed to enable marketplace transactions too, and you have the benefit of knowing that as you succeed, the dollars are a result of your actions, and not failings on the part of the platform provider.

Build Unique Stuff

That’s an interesting statement.  I am sure it’s true to some extent, but most developers are looking for interesting scenarios to that lead to sales, not gee whiz factor.

Define Google’s Marketing

One of the core principles of our team is to make sure we are 100% focused on the success of the developers.  We give them whatever they need to be successful, and engage with them wherever we can to find out what we can be doing better.  Robert is making a suggestion that Google is going to reach out to the dev community for help in this regard.  Unless he has inside knowledge, I haven’t seen this actually occurring in the market.  He does make one very good point – Google hasn’t figured out how it will sell its tablet.  The same can be said for the how they promote developers on their platform.

Access to Lacking Features

See point above about unique stuff.  I am confused.  Using widgets + getting on Oprah means your app is more polished than Flipboard?  That’s a damn polished app.  I am not sure widgets would make it more so.  Notifications certainly enable an entirely new way to interact with customers – we’ve got them on Windows Phone 7 and devs are making some cool uses of them.

“Smooth” is Harder

I get that if you figure out how to optimize on the platform, and figure out all kinds of neat tricks, you will be a better programmer.  Totally agree.  You know what else makes you a great programmer?  Getting to focus on your algorithms and overall experience, and not dealing with ridiculous, time consuming, soul sapping optimizations which shouldn’t have to be discovered in the first place.  Developers universally tell us that they love working with the Windows Phone Developer Tools because of the maturity of the tools, the smoothness of the UI, and the ability to focus on the experience, and not nonsense.  You shouldn’t need an additional toolkit for dealing with fragmentation.

Get Noticed

I don’t buy this.  I am not likely to pay more attention because someone has something I don’t.  It may work for the first 2 people to come up to me with a Xoom, but after that, it won’t.  At SxSW, this will not be the case.  Too many plugged in people.  Getting noticed is about having something of value, or being able to cut through the clutter.  Having a Xoom is not a marketing strategy.  Being awesome is.

Fandroids

The fans matter.  Absolutely.  Do they have influence?  That’s the question.  There’s quite a lot of fans of the WebOS as well.  Getting more people to yell into the Techcrunch/Scoble echo chamber is not a marketing strategy.  It’s simply not.  Robert highlights the very difficult part of being a mobile app developer: getting noticed.  The fan boys are fine for an initial early adopter push, but to really get noticed, there’s a much larger problem to be solved.  What is the “backrub algorithm” equivalent for apps?  That’s a post for another time, but the company that figures that out is going to be unbelievably wealthy.

Iterate Faster

Being able to publish faster into a broken marketplace is not a suitable replacement for a broken marketplace experience.  There’s a reason Robert pointed out that people are having a hard time monetizing on Android.

At the end of the day, developers want sockets.  Android tablets will lag iPad for some time in that regard.  As they will also lag iPhone/iPod Touch and Android handsets.  Android hasn’t clearly demonstrated you can make money on their platform when they are supposedly activating 300,000 handsets a day, what makes Robert think that targeting a smaller target market (Android tablets) is a more viable alternative when the underlying marketplace flaws around monetization remain?  That’s not to say developers aren’t making money on Android.  It’s just not as easy as other alternatives in the market.

I was listening to the most recent TWiT where there was discussion about the recent algo change at Google.  During the conversation, there was an off-hand comment about whether or not the following relationship held water:

Google:Social as Microsoft:Search

That one kind of bent my mind around a bit.  There isn’t any new thought here.  Social is presenting all kinds of problems for Google, and despite their success in South America and some other locales with Orkut, they really haven’t made much of a dent in social.  A fact made more known by the recent additions of the talents of Marissa Mayer to the task.

Some have argued that social isn’t in the DNA at Google, and that’s the source of their problems.  It’s not too hard of a stretch to make the same claim about Microsoft: that we never had search in our DNA.

The analogy, however, breaks down when you spend a bit more time thinking about the subtleties of the companies.  Microsoft, at the core, is a platform company.  This is an important distinction, and one we will revisit in a little bit.  Microsoft started with dev tools, moving to operating systems, into desktop publishing and productivity, into the enterprise with OS and database, and branching ever more from there into mobile, cloud, web, etc, and of course into search.

Microsoft has had many successful forays beyond what is viewed as it’s knitting.  I have tried, quite unsuccessfully, to drive home the following point to people: Microsoft is a tremendous business even without Office and Windows Client.  Think about these businesses:

1. Windows Server
2. SharePoint
3. SQL Server
4. Project
5. Visual Studio
6. System Center
7. Exchange
8. Xbox

Those are businesses which are very, very large.  As in, start thinking about three commas.  Think about that for a moment.  Let that wash over you.  What else does Google have?  Search is their hit.  It’s a master stroke sort of hit, but really, what else have they done?  Android is big business, to be sure, but it exists to serve search.

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