Marketplace Expansion (Image courtesy of WPCentral)

Microsoft have expanded their MarketPlace to an extra 5 countries; The new territories are Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru, and the Philippines, which makes 41 countries so far with the official Marketplace, which developers in those regions can now submit apps and games.

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marketplace

So how many of you all will start using Marketplace now ?

Download this Application

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In a recent review of a Racing game from the WM Marketplace we came across a disturbing practice by one particular developer. When a customer is looking for apps / games from the marketplace they usually have to go by the description of the app , the screenshots and user reviews. Since the Marketplace is not very popular among WM users the user review part of that gets thrown out the window. So as we see it the Screenshots of the app plays a very important part in making the decision as to purchase the app or not.

Screenshot

See why Microsoft should remove this Screenshot

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Here is the Windows Marketplace for Mobile: Application Submission Walkthrough Video

Screenshots after the Break ( Big thanks goes to HermsSoftware for those )

Screenshots of App Submission

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Application submissions from all 29 supported countries have begun and to kick things off Microsoft have launched a Race to Market Challenge

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MarketPlace

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iPhone Development lure

There was some interesting post by Cristine Gonzalez over @ venturebeat.com. The first one goes by the title ” iPhone devotion blinds Silicon Valley app developers “. They try to point out developers are missing out when they choose to ignore the other platform and concentrate on the iPhone.

Then the developers had their say as to why they choose iPhone development over Symbian, Windows Mobile and the other players. You can read some of the reactions over @ another post titled ” Mobile app developers fire back: Nokia sucks! ”

A lot rests with the new Marketplace for Windows Mobile, that will be shipped with WM6.5. I believe it will be a make or break turning point for the future of Windows Mobile. Apple has put a lot of work in to the iPhone and many of the drawbacks has been dealt with ( not yet but with the release of version 3.0 of their firmware ) but there are still some drawbacks like no background process, etc. As a user of both Windows Mobile and the iPhone, I feel that the iPhone is looking more and more attractive as the days goes by. What do you guys think ?

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Skymarket

The Windows Mobile development team posted some more details on Skymarket which is officially known as Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The Windows Marketplace will have these features:

• An easily discovered on-device application that is installed on every Windows Mobile 6.5 device, and includes prominent placement on the Start menu.
• Global marketplace distribution in 30 countries with flexible payment options through both credit card and mobile operator payment methods.
• Single source developer-focused web site for sign-up, publishing, and management of applications in the marketplace.
• Transparent set of policies that clearly articulate the types of applications allowed in the store.
• Leverage existing Microsoft developer tools, such as Visual Studio, for faster time to market.

Looks like after Apples huge success with the App Store , every one wanna jump on to the bandwagon, and its not just Microsoft

Nokia’s Ovi Store
PocketGear App Store for Symbian
Android Market
Palm Software Store
BlackBerry Applications Center – Is still in the works

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