BiJ
I was having a great morning, well it was great till I saw that ShopSavvy for Windows Mobile has been delayed. Read on to find out why..
A few weeks back we did an interview with Jörg ( from Ageye Apps ). He explained the frustrations he faced as a developer in getting his apps in to the marketplace. We were contacted by another developer who has released some great apps through xda-developers and some great commercial apps who found that the security offered in place to safeguard apps in the marketplace was a joke. ( a few changes were made to fix this after that )
ShopSavvy is one a much loved app on the Android platform and as per the developer they had to ” put EVERYTHING on hold ” to get the WM 6.5 app rolled out for a Windows Marketplace launch as a featured app. And when the app was almost ready to be released , Microsoft pressed the need for SQL Server CE to be included in ShopSavvy ( which according to the developer was a requirement that was never documented or explained to them )
Quote from Big in Japan
The Windows Mobile version of ShopSavvy is on hold indefinitely. I wouldn’t expect a Windows Mobile version of ShopSavvy until sometime next year. Here is the story:
Late this summer we put EVERYTHING on hold and worked to build a Windows Mobile version of ShopSavvy for the Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Marketplace launch. Our friends at Microsoft offered us a slot as the feature app for the major launch event – many of which never ended up occurring. We completed ShopSavvy, but at the 11th hour we learned of a requirement that was never documented or explained to us – the need for SQL Server CE to be included in ShopSavvy. It is a long technical story, but basically we needed to compile an installer for our installer. In other platforms such as Android and iPhone all applications share a database – each application using it as necessary. On Windows Mobile each application must include its own database SERVER (not just a client) requiring 2MB of space. Nightmare. This will be resolve in a future release of Windows Mobile. In the meantime the coding effort required to add this functionality to ShopSavvy would have delayed our iPhone release even further and we decided we had to release prior to Black Friday.
The developer now plans to release the CAB file on their site when its ready and the official Marketplace version might be released sometime next year. When will Microsoft stop pushing developers away ?? As a consumer / developer what do you feel about this situation ?
Update : a twitter post where Microsoft offers support to the developer to overcome the issue… ( nice one MS 
)
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
From the story it sounds like there is more happening than has been revealed. Microsoft should get their act together though and become a much more open marketplace if they ever expect to catch up to Apple or Google in the marketing campaign.
For our application (Mobliza), we use SQLite, and it wasn't rejected. We only had problems with SQL CE – *lots* of compatibility issues, especially between SQL CE 3.5.0 and 3.5.1 due to a bug in how it handles different versions of the DLL on a device. Moving to SQLite completely solved the problem, so I'm surprised Microsoft would care about the db tech used, especially considering the compatibility issues with so many phones.
This is not a Marketplace or Microsoft problem as its being inferred in the news article. This is purely a lack of WM coding knowledge by the programmer.
This is an old OS design issue that “everyone” who's gone looking at databases on WM know about. Yes, there is no centralised database for apps to use on WM thus all app's have to create/install their own. Sure its a “silly idea” THESE DAYS but 2+ years ago no one would have thought of having a centralised SQL server on a phone!
As the first poster said, use SQLite and the CODING problem is EASIER. Microsoft will accept and authorise the app perfectly fine.
We have contacted Microsoft , to learn more on the issue . We will update the post with more info as they keep coming.
@ GTRoberts : as per the information passed on by the developer. the major issue with the app being completed and submitted was with SQL Server CE. I am not a developer myself so I cant say what the advantages / disadvantages are for that practice. My main issue was with the fact that the app is being delayed coz of a requirement that was never documented or explained to the developer ( as the dev mentioned )
We have contacted Microsoft , to learn more on the issue . We will update the post with more info as they keep coming.
@ GTRoberts : as per the information passed on by the developer. the major issue with the app being completed and submitted was with SQL Server CE. I am not a developer myself so I cant say what the advantages / disadvantages are for that practice. My main issue was with the fact that the app is being delayed coz of a requirement that was never documented or explained to the developer ( as the dev mentioned )
I'm not too sure why they choose to use the SQL CE version in the first place because it really is a sledgehammer to achieve a local db… BUT… yes the question is there and I suspect MS probably feel using SQL CE is overkill as well and/or there may be a licensing issue with distributing it via the marketplace???
Why is this a surprise? The Marketplace policy is that the application must include the installer for ANY and ALL necessary components, including Compact Framework, since there is a big chance the component is not alread present on someone's phone.
Upon installation, the installer checks if the component of the targeted version is already present, and if not, continues to install the component. This is the ABC of Windows programming, really. You must include the necessary components in your install.
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