Microsoft opens Windows Marketplace for Mobile with 246 apps
Summary: Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Microsoft's equivalen to the Apple's iPhone App Store, opened for business officially on October 6 with 246 applications. That is nowhere near the more than 85,000 apps in the App Store, but Microsoft officials claim not to be discouraged.
Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Microsoft's equivalen to the Apple's iPhone App Store, opened for business officially on October 6 with 246 applications.
Yes, that is nowhere near the more than 85,000 apps in the App Store. But Microsoft officials claimed not to be discouraged by the disparity. At Microsoft's consumer-focused open-house showcase in New York City today, company officials noted that the company has 753 independent software vendors working on Windows Mobile ports.
Robbie Bach, the President of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Unit, told press and analysts that he was upbeat about Microsoft's progress.
"Apple had less than 100 applications when it first launched its marketplace," Bach said. (I did a quick search and found a story claiming that number was actually closer to 500, when Apple launched its store in 2008.)
Bach also claimed it was "kind of goofy" to focus on the absolute numbers of applications in Microsoft's Windows Mobile store, since the real measure of success is how many of those applications get used.
Bach told press and analysts who attended a private roundtable that there are more than 20,000 applications available for Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 phones -- and even if the applications focused on specific business verticals and IT tasks are subtracted, there are still "tens of thousands" of Windows Mobile apps out there.
The newly launched Windows Marketplace for Mobile currently only works with Windows Mobile 6.5 phones, which launched today. Microsoft officials have said that the Marketplace will also be accessible to Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 phones before the end of the year. But that doesn't mean the current crop of Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 apps get an automatic berth in the Windows Marketplace; they still need to go through the certification and evaluation process.
Windows Live services -- other than instant messaging -- aren't are going to be available via the Marketplace. Windows Live Hotmail will be included with all Windows Mobile phones, but the some other Windows Live services will be available preloaded on select phones, since "operators are trying to monetize this space separately," as Aaron Woodman, Director of Product Management for Windows Mobile told me today. (Note: Corrected my misunderstandings here.)
Microsoft also officially "turned on" the commercial version of its My Phone premium service for Windows Mobile users on October 6. (My Phone is the service formerly codenamed Skybox.) The final version of the service includes several new capabilities that were not part of the beta service. These are:
- Social networking integration: Direct access to Facebook and other social-networking services is available from the My Phone cloud.
- Windows Mobile phones set to vibrate are able to be made to ring (at a high volume) via My Phone to help users locate lost phones.
- Windows Mobile phones may be locked and set to post a message via My Phone. (Example: "MJF's phone. $50 bucks for its return. Call xxx.")
- Windows Mobile phones may be located on a GPS map via the service (in case they are stolen or lost)
- Windows Mobile phones may be wiped of data and reprogrammed remotely via My Phone.
Windows Mobile 6.0, 6.1 or 6.5 users can access these services, which Microsoft considers to be a "premium pack" for free until Nov. 30, 2009. After that date, seven-day access to the premium package will be available for purchase for $4.99.
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Talkback
logic
applications available for Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 phones ? and even
if the applications focused on specific business verticals and IT tasks are
subtracted, there are still ?tens of thousands? of Windows Mobile apps
out there."
20.000 minus the vertical apps makes tens of thousands left available?
how is that even possible? maybe in microsoft land. if diluted mr. bach
doesn't even get basic semantics right and flat out lies about a
competitor (only 100 apps at start) how is this guy supposed to lead
microsoft out of their mobile platform mess?
bad business model
There migh be a few hungry iPhone developers porting their crap on windoze mobile, but this store is DOA unless they GPL the code.
GPL'ing the code...
Why would Microsoft do this if Apple doesn't have to?
Apple's apps stores only need to use GPL if the author of the app used any code already under GPL. But then Apple has their own license for apps store applications, which, if I'm not mistaken is at odds with the premise of GPL.
This makes NO sense.
What happened to all the other Windows Mobile apps?
In 3 years, Microsoft has fallen further behind. OEMs are falling off, apps are decreasing, and developers are falling. Since this failure is due to bad management, why are Bach & Ballmer still in charge? It doesn't seem like the Windows Mobile playbook has changed between 2006 and 2009.
Search a bit, you might find something...
http://download.cnet.com/mobile/cell-phone-applications/?filter=os=90|platform=Mobile&filterName=os=Windows%20Mobile|platform=Mobile&tag=contentMain;contentBody
Next time do at least the minimum of research.
As for Ballmer and Bach in the leadership arena, I agree that at least Ballmer is lacking, he really needs to learn to keep his mouth closed.
Can't speak for Bach, never seen him speak in public, but have you ever used a Zune device or an XBox 360? They're actually pretty decent devices. I know people who have iPods that have played with Zunes and liked them better.
Seriously the only thing I question about Zunes is that they're only available in the United States. Seems like a bonehead move there, but that may have been J Allard's decision not Bach's.
As for iPods, yes I've played with them, but I'm not a 15 year old girl who needs approval of her peers so I wasn't affected by the "need for cool points" that seem to be associated with getting and using Apple products.
NYT reports "this management" has 15 months
Can understand their desire to pursue retail and phones, after what happened to them over the last 6 years.
But to make everything they do, outside OS's and Office, be a copy of some other successful thing Apple has already done ... doesn't inspire my confidence.
What has Ballmer done for you lately?
Zune? A generation late
WinM6.5? Where is WinM7?
Bing? What is Bing's market stat for last month?
.NET? London Stock Exchange rejects Windows/.Net platform and goes full Open Source instead.
Vista? Good? Tell that to the people pleading and begging for XP
And what's with this selective reporting here? Either report the good and the bad or hands off. What is this place FoxNews?
question
you bring up good points but again, what does this have to do with this specific story?
Oh my Gosh, need I list.....
My lord, .NET? Because of one Linux implementation, .NET is dead? You obviously haven't looked for a job lately, have you.
.NET, C# proficiency, Enterprise Services or WCF, IIS7, Sharepoint, SQL 2005/2008, MS Office.....oh I get it, you are a one of those who has a need to put down others to prop up your barely existent self esteem...got it.
Even the name... dilettante copycat.
RE: Microsoft opens Windows Marketplace for Mobile with 246 apps
universe ? I don't think it is even fair to begin with
you judging the overall premises of a company as broad
and complex as Microsoft. If it wouldn't have been for
them the world would not even have gotten to this era of
highly competitive consumer and enterprise software in
the remotest realms of their execution.
AppStore = should be ajax code, and free !
should or could have been served as free webpages. By
pushing them through the appstore, charging for the
service is possible, -and thus a motivation for
creating an app. The app on the iphone OS can more be
considered an offline-bookmark. If one sees it this
way, the whole browser-iphone-app thing becomes very
very unclear as to what it wants to achieve, and the
number of apps irrelevant. There can possibly be
millions of IE-surfable webpages on WM7 that act as
applications, and the usability of WM7 would be way
better than the iPhone.
The appstore is just as temporary as itunes. A good
business, but not everlasting.
Windows Marketplace *COULD* diffrentiate itself from
the appstore, by offering a different categorization
of applications and other browsing oportunities. It
should also build more heavily on hardware-dependent
apps, and push lighter apps to the web.
NOT EVEN OPEN
RE: Microsoft opens Windows Marketplace for Mobile with 246 apps
RE: Microsoft opens Windows Marketplace for Mobile with 246 apps