Yep, in the end, the "30 minute application" took me a couple of weeks to get into the application store.
This was partly because I wasn't paying attention, partly because i didn't allocate time, but to be honest, partly because the simple app generator tool mentioned in the previous post allowed me to create an application that failed the assessment.
(Your application goes through assessment when you try to publish it to the store).
The first two problems are mine to fix up.
The third problem i wanted to touch on quickly since i posted how "easy" it was to get an application in the store, and how "anyone" could do it. And i managed to mess it up.
For the most part, i still maintain its pretty simple using the tool - but here are some extra caveats:
1. The tool will allow you to make mistakes. Not many, but its possible. (My mistake was choosing a background that actually made some of the content unreadable if a person had their phone set up a certain way).
2. You still need to know how to take some screenshots of the application to include with your store submission. (I failed to do this, and i failed to write it in the previous post).
The good news is, for every mistake you make, the submission people send you a "how to" on fixing the problem. It comes in a very easy to read .pdf that explains it all.
The down side is that you might have a couple of days wait while the review happens.
Anyway - the final result of the "30 minute app" is here:
http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=1d4c4ece-97fc-4d2b-98d1-93deb5fe46c7
Its not much to look at, but it was great to be able to follow the create -> submit -> publish process with an easy example.
Looking forward to adding some real functionality to the app at some point, but i can see how it would be very useful for small business to get up and running quickly.