ChevronWP7 shuts down, gives away App Hub accounts

[Master Devwi]

The ChevronWP7 team has announced that they are closing the doors on ChevronWP7 Labs, an experiment which allowed developers to unlock their Windows Phone handsets without going directly through Microsoft’s App Hub. As a result, all 10,000 customers are eligible to upgrade to a free one-year Windows Phone App Hub membership.

ChevronWP7 Labs catered to beginners and hobbyists eager to develop for Windows Phone (or, more specifically, side load their apps onto a physical device) but hesitant to drop $99 on a full App Hub subscription. Developed with Microsoft’s blessing, the $9 ChevronWP7 unlock tool gave customers nearly all of the benefits of the App Hub, except for the ability to actually submit apps for inclusion in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Unfortunately, most ChevronWP7 customers never decided to upgrade their accounts so they could actually publish their apps. This, combined with a “larger than expected number of support emails” led to Microsoft and the ChevronWP7 team mutually deciding to discontinue the tool, which managed to reach its 10,000 token limit in just two months.

While this news might be disappointing to some people, it’s actually not all that bad. Those who purchased an unlock token are eligible to receive a free one-year subscription to the $99 App Hub—not a bad deal for having already paid $9 to use ChevronWP7 for approximately six months. Better still, Microsoft continues to offer students a free App Hub subscription through its DreamSpark program. So, while $99 might be a barrier to entry for some enthusiasts, businesses probably don't care about the minor fee and students have the opportunity to develop Windows Phone apps for free.

Have you tried developing an app for Windows Phone? And, if so, have you signed up for an App Hub account?

[ChevronWP7]

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