We've been pretty excited about dots & line's excellent Carbon app coming to both Android and Windows Phone. While the former is still in the preliminary planning stages, the team is finished its 1.0 version for Windows Phone, and has even submitted it for review to Microsoft's Marketplace. Except that it has been rejected now four times. Four. Times. This was the tweet from the CarbonWP Twitter account last night:This is mega ultra sonic bad News. We failed Marketplace certification test for the 4th time. We're taking a break from this project for now
Now, how did this happen? Apparently, according to Microsoft's ambiguous review process, the app contained material offensive to China, Indonesia and Malaysia. This after its second and third attempts came back with the explanation: "Your application does not appear to be fully functional when installed from Marketplace. Please clarify its intended functionality within the application description," despite being explicitly labeled as a Twitter app.
We've heard issues like this before. Microsoft attempted to clean up and streamline its app submission process to coincide with the Mango release in October 2011, but it seems there is still the occasional hiccup in the process, though not often with the highly-public profile as Carbon.
Apple has also had its share of "app purgatory" cases, where the submission will sit for weeks or months in Cupertino's review clutches with no reasonable explanation. Such a procedure exposes the often-exasperating of curated app stores such as Windows Phone and iOS. On the other hands, such a process has its advantages, namely weeding out the copyright-infringing, malware-ridden refuse that finds its way into Android's uncensored Marketplace.
While Carbon has been seen to Nokia's Head of Developer Relations,
Richard Kerris has personally intervened there are undoubtedly dozens or hundreds of other app developers in similar situations. We're glad for the oversight, don't get me wrong, but there is a time when enough is enough.
Let's hope Carbon gets approved as soon as possible, for everyone's sake. For an in-depth preview of the Carbon beta for Windows Phone, head on over to
Mobile Jaw.
. If they don't want to make phones with carbon fiber bodies and optical zoom lens then why shouldn't Microsoft? More seriously now, Microsoft would avoid getting into competition with their manufacturer partners by not offering this Signature series through the carriers and instead only selling it in the Microsoft stores and on the Microsoft website. The manufacturers consider the carriers to be their buyers so Microsoft would be keeping the peace by not targeting that channel. On the other hand, Microsoft would avoid pissing off the carriers by offering the phone at an exorbitant price (as they should, this is the bleeding edge of hardware we are talking about). Most customers wouldn't be able to afford this premium device. If a carrier wants to subsidize the price somewhat (say $500 on contract), so be it. It would still be on a tier different from Microsoft's manufacturer partners. Either way, it wouldn't be a mass market device. Customers would lap it up. For those would can afford it, the phones would be status symbols (that carbon fiber!). For phone geeks, it would contain the latest technology (better than the iPhone) and be well worth owning--perhaps Microsoft could even toss in a developer license. This would be top of the line (64GB of storage, NFC wireless headphones etc) with no compromises. Consumer interest will be piqued and those who experience some sticker shock would get be directed to other more affordable phones which run the exact same software and apps. After all, the iPhone 3GS sold very well behind the iPhone 4 despite the iPhone 4 and its features receiving all the advertising. Lure them in with the premium Signature series then sell them another model they can afford. It's still got the Windows logo (although this might be a good time to change the branding...)
