Windows Marketplace for Mobile coming to Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.0

Back at MWC 2009 Microsoft first announced Windows Marketplace for Mobile, followed by an announcement of partners for the Windows Marketplace for Mobile during CTIA Wireless 2009. At both the annoucements the Marketplace for Mobile was announced just for Windows Mobile 6.5 devices.

Let’s recall some parts of the article:  “Microsoft announces partners in Windows Marketplace for Mobile and more”

“[...] the Windows Marketplace for Mobile seems to be announced -at leat according to the press release- for the next generation of Windows Phone, which simply means Windows Mobile 6.5 devices.”

“Personally I think this is the wrong decision, because the Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 userbase is large, while Windows Mobile 6.5 will be on relative few devices by the end of the year. Windows Marketplace for Mobile should be a downloadable application, that is backwards compatible with Windows Mobile 6.”

However yesterday some great news from the Worldwide Partner Conference was received, that Windows Marketplace for Mobile will support Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.0 later this year!! My compliments to Microsoft to reconsider this backwards compatibility.

Chris Ziegler from Engadget Mobile wrote a short article, and also Todd Brix -Senior Director for Mobile Platform Services Product Management at Microsoft- wrote an extensive article on the Windows Mobile Team blog.

In the screenshots (I’m not sure if these are mock-ups or not) above you can see some familiar applications like Facebook for Windows Mobile, the Netflix Application and SPB Puzzle. Furthermore you can see clear product categories, which make it easy to search.  

Furthermore the screenshots also provide a great overview and wide variety of business-related categories of the “business center”. From law, field service and finance to manufacturing and healthcare.

“To help those millions of business users find what they’re looking for, we’re also unveiling the Windows Marketplace Business Center; a category in Windows Marketplace that will contain mobile business applications across several common industries and line of business functions from leading companies that include Avanade UK, Formotus, Ilium Software, Pyxis Mobile and WebIS.  Business Center is another way for our partners to differentiate themselves and showcase their business applications, while making it easier for users to locate and purchase the latest mobile business tools.” 

However lets summarize the Windows Marketplace for Mobile announcements @ Worldwide Partner Conference.

• Application Submission Opens on July 27th: Windows Marketplace will open for application submissions from 29 supported countries July 27th.
• Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 Support: Windows Marketplace will be available for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 by the end of 2009 (in addition to Windows Mobile 6.5 at launch in the fall).
• Business Center: Windows Marketplace will feature a “Business Center” category for business applications. 
• Developer Contest: Microsoft will be disclosing the details of a Windows Marketplace developer contest on July 27.”

On channel 9 you can watch a nice video where Todd Brix gives additional background information and you can see some deviceshots as well !

Wrap up

At first I’m very happy to hear that Microsoft has reconsidered to make the Windows Marketplace for Mobile backwards compatible with Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.0.  Remark my comments above, and look at the great result of this business decision:

“This means that developers will have an opportunity to reach more than 30 million Windows Mobile devices. ”

Honestly I’m really impressed with the  possible impact of the “business center”. The categories in the screenshots really address a lot of important fields in today’s industry. If Microsoft succeeds to fill these categories with great software titles I think they will have a great Marketplace for Mobile up and running by the end of this year.

Finally I’m still curious how the mechanisms for payment, and what options to pay for a certain application will work in practice if you install from you Windows Phone! I hope Microsoft will provide more information about this in the upcoming future.