Microsoft's Windows Phone
Marketplace will launch sometime in early October, suggesting that
manufacturers will begin to roll out Windows Phone 7 devices ahead of the
holiday season.
In an Aug. 23 blog post, a
Microsoft executive announced that final Windows Phone 7 developer tools would be released
Sept. 16.
"All developers will
have equal opportunity to capitalize on the first-mover advantage of having
their apps or games ready at launch," Brandon Watson, Microsoft's director
of developer experience for Windows Phone 7, wrote on The Windows Blog.
To make that happen,
though, developers will need to download the final tools and use them to
recompile their applications and games. "Have your XAP ready for ingestion
into the marketplace in early October when it opens," Watson advised.
Microsoft's current mobile
operating system, Windows
Mobile 6.5, launched in October 2009 concurrently with Windows Marketplace
for Mobile, a mobile-applications storefront. Despite being termed a
"restart" by Microsoft executives, Mobile 6.5 failed to gain traction with
consumers. Windows Phone 7 is viewed as an even more radical reset, with a
completely revamped user interface and application marketplace.
An October launch for both
Windows Phone Marketplace and Windows Phone 7 would be in keeping with earlier
rumors. In June, tech blog Engadget quoted Mich Mathews, senior vice president
for Microsoft's Central Marketing Group, as saying Windows Phone 7 would launch in October. That
timing would allow Microsoft and its manufacturing partners to build buzz for
the smartphones ahead of the holiday shopping rush.
Whether that pans
out—Microsoft has repeatedly said the phones will launch by the end of 2010, at
least—the company is certainly pushing developers to create for the platform.
Major competitors to Windows Phone 7, including the Apple iPhone and the range
of Google Android devices, come with sizable application stores already in
place, while Research In Motion has committed to building a more robust
storefront for BlackBerry applications.
"The Windows Phone Marketplace continues our commitment to having a clear
and open process for certifying apps and games. To reinforce that, today we
have posted an updated set of Windows Phone Marketplace policies," Watson
said. "Further, in the coming weeks we will be conducting a limited beta
test cycle of our app submission and certification process."
But the supposedly updated
list of Marketplace policies seems unchanged from the version released in July,
at least when it comes to guidelines for applications and content. Those
policies include restrictions on the depiction of exploding body parts and
"people or creatures on fire," which could create some difficulties
when it comes to approving popular games.
"Philosophically, our
approach with Marketplace is in line with what's existed for Windows Phone
traditionally, and for Windows Mobile 6.5," Casey McGee, a spokesperson
for Microsoft, told eWEEK in a
July 13 interview at the company's Worldwide
Partner Conference. "What we've sought to do with Windows Phone is be
very transparent—here are what the fees are going to look like, etc., and here
are the guidelines."
Reportedly, Microsoft has
been offering to pay developers of popular iPhone applications to port their
wares over to Windows Phone 7. At Tech·Ed, Microsoft made a clear effort to
push the platform to more business-centric designers. The company claims that
there have been about 300,000 downloads of earlier versions of its Windows
Phone Developer Tools to date.
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