Stupid Question 164: What is the difference between Telemetry and Analytics data in RE to Windows Store Apps?

[To celebrate my first year of programming I will ask a ‘stupid’ questions daily on my blog for a year, to make sure I learn at least 365 new things during my second year as a developer]

Telemetry and Analytics- how is your app doing?

Last week I passed the MCSD exam on Advanced Windows Store App development (70-485), and one of the questions I was a bit unsure of was what kind of data you get from analytics and telemetry. I always takes notes afterwards carefully analyzing the areas I felt unsure of and then look up the information. So here is a little write-up on telemetry and analytics (in RE to Windows Store Apps).

Why analyze?

Stats are fun (just my opinion)
Pin-point your customer base
Find out what the customer wants
Find new opportunities
Create better apps by analyzing error reports
Increased satisfaction and higher adoption rate

Two types of stats available through your Windows Store developer account:

Telemetry and Analytics.

What is Telemetry?

   Technology that allows data measurement to be made at a distance (Wikipedia).

   From Greek *tele* = remote, and *metron* = measure

Telemetry

It collects information about your app when it runs on the device.

Important: You need to enable this feature this feature yourself in your Windows Store dev account

Average app usage
- By form factor (tablet, desktop, laptop)
Errors (crash, exceptions, JavaScript exceptions)

Analytics

Data collected from the Windows Store, such as:

App listing views
Downloads
- By group (age, gender)
- By market
- Most active market segment
Referrer
Ratings
Average and Total
Reviews
Financial data

Both Telemetry and Analytics are displayed in the analytics report in your Dashboard

A great write-up on Improving apps with quality reports

Channel 9 video: Analytics for Windows Store Apps

Stupid Question 164: What is the difference between Telemetry and Analytics data in RE to Windows Store Apps?

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