Monday, July 8, 2013

Provide Windows Phone Store Parent Approval for Kids Corner

From an app-developer's perspective, the main ways to monetize an app that runs on Windows Phone 8 are:

(1) Try and Buy
(2) In-App Purchases
(3) In-App Advertising

and the most common app marketing methods are:

(4) cross-promoting the dev's other apps via house-ads
(5) cross-promotion ad networks (e.g. AdDuplex)

With the exception of in-app advertising, each of these other monetization & marketing methods requires access to the Windows Phone Store to work properly. For example, even though a developer can display a house-ad for another one of his/her apps/games, the end-goal of showing the ad is for the user to tap and download/buy the app.

Normally these monetization & marketing strategies work fine, except for an app in Kids Corner, the Windows Phone Store is blocked, and the related user-workflows aren't possible. If the user can't access the Windows Phone Store, they can't Try or Buy and App or perform an In-App Purchase.

So, for an app in Kids Corner, Try & Buy, In-App Purchases, House-Ads, and even AdDuplex will not work properly as monetization and marketing strategies for a developer, because of the way Kids Corner is implemented. I understand that parents don't want their kids downloading apps, buying apps, or performing in-app purchases in Kids Corner without their permission - but what about *with* their permission/assistance? As a parent, that's not only reasonable, but convenient.

Consider the current workflow for downloading another app from an app's house-ad from Kids Corner:

(1) Kid taps an house-ad for a kids-game and gets an error message that they can't access the Windows Phone Store from Kids Corner.
(2) Kid either forgets about it (bad for the developer) or asks parent to download it
(3) Since parent can't approve download immediately, parent either says "no" or "not now" (bad for the developer), or exits Kids Corner by deactivating the phone.
(4) Parent reactivates the phone and enters passcode
(5) Parent goes to the Windows Store and enters search text to find the app and download it
(6) Then parent adds the app to Kids Corner

Six manual steps to download the app by a parent is not a very effective way for a house-ad to result in a download - it's just not going to happen. What's needed is a workflow that's much simpler, for example, by doing these things:

(1) Instead of the child not being able to access the WP Store, let the child be able to view apps on the WP Store with a child-appropriate rating (e.g. ESRB/PEGI rating). Accordingly, insure that app-ratings are available to 3rd-party ad-networks (e.g. AdDuplex) so that they can show ads for apps that kids will be able to see on the WP Store from Kids Corner.

(2) Allow a parent to enter a passcode to approve a trial download or app buy from the WP Store when launched from an app running in Kids Corner. (Since in-app purchases can be handled by non-Microsoft marketplaces, parental approval for them would likely need to be done at app/phone-level.)

(3) Provide Kids Corner phone settings for the above things, for example, to adjust app-ratings for Kids Corner viewable apps, approval password (if different from phone password), which things are parent-approvable, ...

Then the workflow for approving an app download would be:
(1) Kids taps house-ad, sees either
(A) This app is not able to be viewed from Kids Corner (because it doesn't have the appropriate app rating)
(B) The app details page on the WP Store and download buttons that require parent approval
(2) Parent enters password to approve app download/purchase, and app downloads and gets put in Kids Corner.

Simple, quick, & safe.

Providing this feature would also:
(A) Encourage developers to rate their apps & games
(B) Encourage ad-networks to show age-appropriate ads in Kids Corner
(C) Encourage developers to monetize with Try & Buy and in-app purchases for apps/games in Kids Corner & market with house-ads and cross-promotion networks (e.g. AdDuplex)

Source: http://windowsphone.uservoice.com/forums/101801-feature-suggestions/suggestions/4164663-provide-windows-phone-store-parent-approval-for-ki

etan patz obama dog doug hutchison larry brown thomas kinkade pat summit brewers

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