When Microsoft first released Windows Marketplace for Mobile,
it only ran on the newest version of the company's smartphone operating system,
Windows Mobile 6.5. On Nov. 16, Microsoft announced that older versions,
specifically Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1, will now be able to access its
mobile-applications bazaar.
Microsoft released both Windows Mobile 6.5 and Marketplace for Mobile
on Oct. 6. The initiatives were part of the company's attempts to start afresh
in the smartphone operating system space, where it has seen its market share
steadily decline in the face of competition from Apple, Research In Motion and
other companies.
"Initially, Marketplace was available for the new Windows phones with Mobile
6.5. Today, almost all people with phones running Windows Mobile 6.0 and above
with a supporting data plan can now access Marketplace," Eric Nelson, a
member of Microsoft's Developer Evangelist team, wrote
in a Nov. 16 post on The Windows Blog. "Roughly 90 percent of the apps
in our catalogue already support Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 devices."
Nelson said the total number of applications available for Marketplace stood
at 800, more than three times the number available at the platform's launch in
October. About 1,000 ISVs are currently registered to provide mobile
applications.
In addition to making Marketplace for Mobile
available to users of older versions of Mobile,
Microsoft
also upgraded the store with better anti-piracy protection, PC-based shopping
and account management. Using the Windows Marketplace for Mobile
site, users can now purchase applications and have them sent wirelessly to
their smartphones.
"We've been gathering input on what we can do to improve the developer
experience and have made some subtle but important enhancements to the
developer portal to enable easier uploading of images, greater insight into
account status and several other refinements based on feedback from developers,"
Todd Brix, senior director for Mobile Platform Services Product Management, wrote
on the Windows Mobile blog on Nov. 11.
During the summer, Microsoft
executives suggested that their goal was to have 600 mobile applications
available for the Oct. 6 release. As part of its strategy for
differentiating its own offering from other companies' mobile-application
stores, Microsoft encouraged developers to charge more for their Windows Mobile
applications than the 99 cents common on Apple's App Store.
"We would definitely want to promote [the idea] that you make more
money selling applications than selling your application in a dollar
store," Loke Uei, senior technical product manager for Microsoft's Mobile
Developer Experience Team, told mobile application developers in Redmond, Wash.,
on Aug. 19. "But 99 cents, come on, I think your app is worth more than
that."
Although Windows Mobile 6.5 boasts improved touch-screen functionality, as
well as other tweaks designed to make it more current than other Microsoft
mobile offerings, it is widely considered something of a stopgap measure until
Microsoft can release Windows Mobile 7 in 2010.
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