Feature on prime-time US TV by becoming the Next App Star

If you’re a developer – or wannabe developer – on the Windows Phone 8 platform, now is a great time to publish that app to the Windows Phone Store. The Windows Phone Next App Star competition is now open and could see your app making an appearance in an advertisement on prime-time TV in the USA.
While the grand prize is your app featuring on US TV, the competition is open to developers worldwide.

To participate, you must be a registered developer with at least one app in the Windows Phone Store and have published something to at least one country. Your content doesn’t have to be brand new, older apps have as much a chance of winning as new ones.

You’ll also need to ‘opt-in‘, so make sure you login to do that; otherwise you’ll not be entered.

Initially, the Windows Phone team will judge all the app submissions based on an equal weighting of user ratings and app quality, including your implementation of new Windows Phone 8 features, such as Live Tiles. This is to stop people cheating and getting their friends to give 5-star ratings in the hope of being picked.

The best way to ensure you’re apps are chosen is to make the absolute most of what Windows Phone 8 has to offer. Create an app as rich as possible. Create a Live Tile that looks amazing on the Start screen. Utilise SkyDrive so that people can upload or download files. Or, make use of the HERE platform to provide the most accurate location experience possible.

Whatever you decide to use or create, it must run on Windows Phone 8. However, why not have it run on both Windows Phone 7.5 and 8 for extra brownie points?

Once the Windows Phone team have picked the appropriate apps, they’ll then narrow that list down to just 64 to go head-to-head in bracket-style competition. This will then be open to public voting.

Over the following several of weeks, the public will vote, whittling down the entries to 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, and ending with just one winner, taking home the grand prize of the U.S. TV ad slot and the title of the Next App Star.

Additional prizes will be on offer throughout the contest to encourage people to participate. There will be thousands of dollars worth in prizes up for grabs for the developers of the 64 apps; including a Nokia Lumia 920, featured promotion in the Windows Phone Store and a one-year free Dev Center subscription.

Nokia Lumia 820Personalisation meets powerLearn more, here.
Even if you don’t win, the exposure of your apps in the competition itself may still see you gaining new fans and some extra money from new app purchases.

App submission ends on 5th March, and the public voting ends 8th April, 2013. Remember, you’ll need to opt-in to take part – your apps won’t automatically be entered.

Check out the official rules or the Windows Phone Developer Blog for more details.

Will you be taking part?