The Windows Phone Marketplace continues to grow each & every day. Over the past few months, we’ve seen some great, innovative apps created by students. Here are three recent examples:

• Gary Roumanis (gary@8tracks.com) created a slick app for 8tracks internet radio and is in close collaboration now with 8tracks to have his app become the official version for Windows Phone!
• Achia Shaag (@achiash), E-dan Bloch (@TwinBlackEyes), and Maayan Negbi are all CS students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and published Colorful to help color blind people recognize and compare colors
• Fahim Karim (@fahim_k) built ColorSwerve to have fun creating & sharing pixelated photos

I love nothing more than to help spread the word about innovative experiences created by students.  If you know of a great student app that’s been published to the Windows Phone Marketplace, I encourage you to get in touch with me (contact information is below) to let me know.  Shameless self-promotions are welcome!

We know students have big ideas and that contests can give them an extra push to take action:  Gary, Achia, E-dan, Maayan, and Fahim were all inspired, in part, by past contests that we’ve run for students.  This week, we kicked off something we’re calling “Idea of the Week.” We will select one winner each week and give them a $50 USD gift certificate for Amazon.com (or one of its local sites like Amazon.co.uk).

Here’s what to do for your chance to win:

1.  
   1. Make sure you’re signed up for DreamSpark (www.dreamspark.com)
   2. Download Expression Studio (from DreamSpark and free of charge for students) and the Sketchflow Template for Windows Phone from http://wp7sketchflow.codeplex.com
   3. Create a Sketchflow prototype of your app idea and post the prototype online
   4. Tweet out the link to your prototype using the hashtag “#wpappitup”. For example, “Check out my idea, UltimateApp, at http://www.findyourcolony.com #wpappitup”

<aside reason=”toAppeaseTheLawyers”>No Purchase Necessary. Open only to students 18+. Game ends 12/25/11. For Official Rules, click here</aside>

We’re going to judge the ideas based on three criteria:

1. Innovation (40%): How innovative is the idea? It does something new or does it accomplish something in a new way?
2. Experience (40%): Since this is a prototype, we don’t expect the UX to be polished. However, we are looking for a quality experience in the flow of the app. Does it feel seamless and like a native experience on Windows Phone?
3. Potential (20%): Does the app idea have potential in the market (lots of users, making money, both) or not?

Want to go even deeper and learn more about building & publishing apps for Windows Phone? We have great resources and free developer tools for students at FindYourColony.com.

We’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Ben

@benlower | phoneninja@microsoft.com | +1 (206) 659-NINJA (6465)