Microsoft detailed changes to its App Hub, the portal for its Windows Phone 7 developers, ahead of the release of its next generation of the platform – codenamed Mango. According to Todd Brix, the company’s Senior Director of Windows Phone Product Management, the updates fall into three categories: more geographic markets for developers, consumers and advertising coverage; new private distribution options; and enhanced application and account management capabilities. It also said that it is “just about a month away from enabling developers to begin submitting Mango apps to App Hub.”

The App Hub update will enable apps to be published in 19 new countries, in addition to the 16 that the marketplace already supports. The new additions are Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan. The company has also added 7 new markets where developers can register and submit apps: Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, South Africa and South Korea, to be joined by China later this year. The App Hub has now been localised for Korean and Simplified Chinese, as well as English and Japanese.

Following Apple’s decision to review its pricing tiers last week, Microsoft is now doing the same. According to Brix, “the goal is to maintain consistent application pricing across markets – during the nine months since our initial launch, some currencies have gained and some have lost strength relative to one another.” It has also added extra price tier options below US$5, to provide “more flexibility in pricing.”

Also in the pipeline is international availability of Microsoft’s Advertising pubCenter, to enable developers to receive in-app advertising revenue in their local currency. By the end of 2011, developers in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom will be supported. Microsoft said that following a recent trial of mobile advertising platforms, the Microsoft Advertising SDK for Windows Phone 7 drove a 71 percent higher yield than the alternatives, producing greater overall gross revenue and fill rates.

Microsoft is also set to offer developers private distribution options. Apps distributed using these methods can only be accessed via deep links, and cannot be discovered via browsing or searching in the marketplace. “Beta” distribution enables developers to distribute apps to a group of up to 100 access controlled testers for up to 90 days, in order to test apps with a “hand -picked” set of users. “Targeted” distribution enables apps to be made available to “as many users as desired,” and apps can also be published publically at any time.

Finally, a number of new application management tools have been introduced. Developers can now change app metadata without the need to re-submit an app for certification. An enhanced developer dashboard enables apps to see a number of app performance metrics from a single location. A new “crash count” report will enable developers to debug apps. A streamlined app submission process has been introduced, with developers able to upload multiple images in one go rather than needing to repeat the process for each one. And three new top-level categories have been added: education, kids and family, and government and politics.