July 14th, 2009
Microsoft to allow Win Mobile 6.0, 6.1 users access to its online app store
On the same day Apple celebrated the one-year anniversary of its iPhone app store, Microsoft announced it a few more tidbits about its own Windows Marketplace for Mobile store.
Microsoft used its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans on July 14 to provide a few updates about its Windows Mobile plans.
The first Windows Mobile 6.5 phones are on track to begin shipping in early fall, said Todd Brix, Senior Director of Mobile Services with Microsoft. The Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store will open simultaneously, Brix reiterated. And Microsoft will be kicking off an ad campaign for Windows Phones (the new way the company refers to Windows Mobile phones) that will be very consumer-focused.
As of July 27, Microsoft will begin testing and certifying third-party apps that will be featured in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile (codenamed Skymarket), Brix said.
And Microsoft is now publicly acknowledging that it will allow users of Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 — not just Windows Mobile 6.5 — will be able to access the Windows Marketplace for Mobile. As a result, Microsoft will expand the market for those apps to 30 million potential customers, Brix said.
Brix said Microsoft is working with Windows Mobile phone makers and mobile operators as to how it will provide users with older Windows Mobile phones with this Marketplace access. In some cases, users will simply be able to go to the Marketplace Web site and download apps directly to their phones. In other cases, mobile operators and phone vendors might become the middlemen, providing Windows Mobile users with access to the store.
The Marketplace for Mobile store will include a separate business center area that will highlight the business apps available for Windows Mobile phones, Brix said. Those kinds of apps will include vertical apps for real estate, medical, legal and other markets, as well as more horizontal apps like Microsoft’s own Office Mobile and Communicator Mobile wares, he said.
Brix declined to provide any kind of update on what’s going on with Windows Mobile 7. I’m still hearing Microsoft will deliver the Mobile 7 code to its phone partners this fall, with the first Windows Mobile 7 phones arriving in the first half of 2010.
He also declined to comment on Skyline, the Windows Mobile push e-mail service Microsoft was working on for SMB customers. In fact, he wouldn’t acknowledge the codename at all. But if body language says anything, though, I’d say Skyline is DOA and we won’t see it come to market.
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