Microsoft has launched Mobile App Match, a new website that aims to bring together the people who build Windows Phone apps with the people who use them. Developers can post their apps (or video demonstrations of them) so that users can give them feedback before the first Windows Phone 7 devices even ship, while end users can submit their app ideas for developers to build for the new platform.
The site has four main categories: "News" is an amalgamation of various Windows Phone blog posts from various Microsoft employees, "Ideas" is where all the submissions and discussions take place, "Apps" is supposed to showcase various applications (currently there's just one featured), and "Video" is full of user submissions either giving input or asking for it.
Users can start conversations, exchange ideas, post apps for both feedback and promotion, and vote on new ideas as well as finished apps.
The website is part a larger effort by Microsoft to make sure the Windows Phone Marketplace is full of quality apps in two months when Windows Phone 7 launches. Microsoft has been enticing OEMs and developers from other mobile platforms to give Windows Phone development a shot. The company has also been ramping up efforts to get its own employees onboard by giving each of them a Windows Phone 7 device and by loosening the restrictions so they can easily create apps for the platform.
Just last week, Microsoft updated its Windows Phone Development documentation on MSDN and posted two new design-focused downloads: UI Design and Interaction Guide for Windows Phone 7 v2.0 and Design Templates for Windows Phone 7. Please, says the company to developers, won't you build some apps?
