Meet the new generation of app developers – courtesy of Windows Phone App Studio Beta

It’s been almost five months since we launched Windows Phone App Studio Beta, a tool that enables anyone to quickly build a Windows Phone app. In that short period of time over 290,000 of you registered and have created more than 135,000 applications (17,000 of which have been published to Windows Phone Store). We appreciate all the input you’ve provided via the WPDev Feedback site and we will continue to use that content to inform new feature releases, improve the user experience and strengthen platform support in future builds. Today we’d like to share with you some of the experiences from the new community of users, many of them novice app developers.

Holly Shore of Austin, Texas, used Windows Phone App Studio Beta to create her own app for her small business Integrative Mom. “It was so great to have these tools to take my website to the next level,” said Shore, “The more I worked with building the app, the easier I found it.” Holly’s story was recently featured on Microsoft’s daily news blog, The Fire Hose.

David Zivot of Toronto, Canada, founder of Grainstorm Heritage Baking whose fresh-stone ground heritage grains are sold online and in 600 retail stores, challenges his users to “Bake like its 1869.” David used Windows Phone App Studio Beta to create an app for his growing business. “Building an app to allow anyone in the kitchen to access our recipes and videos in the kitchen and on the go was something we really wanted. We invested a lot of time in our content on our website, so packaging it all up using App Studio was the way to go,” said Zivot. The app features New Recipes, and links products from their online catalogue, Videos from their YouTube channel and a photo album of goods baked using Grainstorm’s products.

Allen Bergeron Grainstorm Heritage Baking Photo courtesy of David Zivot

Brian Mulligan, of Los Angeles, California, wanted to build a fan page app to help spread the word about the band Jamestown Revival, a duo from Texas whose unique blend of classic American and Western rock is gaining a loyal following. “Fans of Jamestown Revival are very passionate about the band and their music. I wanted to make sure the app could play both audio and video. The Nokia Music and YouTube integration got me that. I plugged in the band’s RSS feeds to capture the concert calendar and the band’s blog, which they are super active on. I worked with their website manager to integrate their Instagram feed with the official developer key to make sure that worked. In the end I ran the whole thing past the band, they loved it, and so I published it!” Check out the Jamestown Revival app and then check out the band in person next time they visit your town.

Zach Chance (L) and Jonathan Clay (R) of Jamestown Revival, with app creator Brian Mulligan Photo courtesy of Paul Pryor

These are just a few of the countless examples of how Windows Phone App Studio Beta helps people bring their passions to life in the mobile world, from the stadiums of this summer’s World Cup in Sedes da Copa 2014 (2015 World Cup Site) to a tourism company in Sri Lanka called PL Tours, to Mi Dulce Mordisco, a pastry chef in Spain.

If you’re looking for additional design guidance to get started on your app, we’ve published sample projects including Contoso LTD, a Windows Phone App Studio Beta app for a fictitious small businesses including a product catalog. The Windows Phone App Studio Information app not only provides up to date information on App Studio, but can also be used as a sample guide for an app that focuses on a singular product, idea, or topic.

All of these apps are included in our Windows Phone App Studio app collection.

If you haven’t done so yet, we encourage you to check out the Windows Phone App Studio Beta, where anyone, regardless of their development experience can bring their dreams and passions to life in the mobile world. And, please keep sending us your stories.