Your worldwide market for applications and content running on Nokia’s newest Windows Phone-based smartphones just got a whole lot bigger. With Nokia Lumia smartphones currently available in 35 markets, Microsoft has just expanded the Windows Phone Marketplace to include 23 more countries, bringing the worldwide total to 63 countries where Marketplace is now available.

The 23 additional countries are: Bahrain, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Iceland, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Vietnam. 

In terms of actual potential app customers, the addition of new price points and customers in China and the other new markets represents a near 60 per cent increase in the total addressable market for Windows Phone products.
 
To expand your app’s reach to Windows Phone owners in these recently-added countries, log into the Microsoft App Hub and add the markets from the list — or choose ‘Worldwide Distribution’ if you would like your app to appear in all 63 of the Marketplaces now available. You need to do this even if you’ve previously opted to make your app available worldwide.

Also, please note that apps submitted for Indonesia, Malaysia, and China will be subject to additional requirements.  
 
Remember, Windows Phone 7.5 lets you create apps and content for all Nokia Lumia smartphones, including the recently announced Nokia Lumia 610 smartphone. These phones will open the door to new price points and customer segments in several high growth markets around the world.
 
To help you test and fine-tune your apps for distribution on the latest Nokia Lumia smartphones, Microsoft has released a technical preview of the 7.1.1 SDK Update. It gives you access to a 256 MB emulator that lets you determine how your apps install and run on lower-memory phones. This preview does not include a ‘go live’ license, so you cannot publish apps created with it. A final version of the SDK, complete with the go-live license, will be available later this month.

See below for an overview about how to add more markets to your app distribution.

How to add more Markets for your Windows Phone apps:

1. Log into App Hub with your developer credentials and navigate to your “my apps” list, then select a specific app to get to the my app page:
   
2. On the My App page, navigate to the “lifecycle” tab, then select Edit catalog details:
   
3. This will take you to the “describe” page, please click Next at the bottom to go to the “price” page.
4. On the pricing page, select Worldwide Distribution, noting that your app will be submitted into all new markets. You can unselect any markets where you would prefer not to distribute your app. Double-check your market selections then select Save and Quit. And you’re done.

Next steps:

• Log into the Microsoft App Hub and add your new markets.
• Download the Microsoft Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 technical preview.
• Check out Nokia’s best practice tips for delivering apps to Windows Phone with 256 MB.