Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Engadget is reporting that Microsoft new app store, Windows Marketplace for Mobile will be gracing the screens of Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 devices. This is welcome news as it had been previously limited to the new WinMo 6.5 platform. Now users of existing devices can get apps from one place and developers just got a few million instant new potential customers. Great news!

If you are a developer and have questions about the forthcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile, check out the new forum on MSDN. You'll need a LiveID to sign up, but chances are, if you develop for Windows Mobile, you already have one. The forum is new but seems to have a few Softies in it to answer questions and take feedback.

"In the latest update to http://developer.windowsmobile.com, developers can now Register to participate in Windows Marketplace for Mobile. This marks another milestone in providing Windows Mobile Developers a clear path to develop, test, certify and distribute their Windows Mobile applications via the Windows® Marketplace for Mobile. Throughout the registration process, links to key documentation for distributing apps through Windows Marketplace for Mobile are provided."

Developers, if you haven't registered to participate in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, now's as good a time as any to do so. You'll have to pony up an annual subscription fee of $99, but doing so will net you assistance with the development, certification, and distribution of your app. Check out the FAQ, if you have any queries. It's worth noting that participation is optional. You may consider the cost or the policies of the Marketplace to be too restrictive, in which case, you're still welcome to develop your app and distribute it through third-party storefronts as you're probably already doing so in this pre-Marketplace era.

The illustration to the left is inspired by something I was told today: the forthcoming Windows Mobile Marketplace is going to be for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones only, not back-ported to Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.0 phones. That's right - the millions and millions of Windows Mobile phones out there today (40+ million I'd say in the past few years alone) will not have access to this forthcoming software directory. Only people that buy brand new phones, or perhaps a tiny percentage that will get a 6.5 upgrade for their phone, will be able to access this. They might as well made it available only to unicorns - both are mythical at this moment in time.

The strength of a software platform comes in numbers. Being the only one in the world with a fax machine means it's useless. Developers are excited about the Marketplace because, for the first time, they'll have direct access to the customer and can easily offer their software to them. But that audience is going to be very small at first, when it should have been very large.

I've been using Apple's App Store lately on an iPod Touch I purchased specifically for this reason, and I've never seen anything so easy to use in my life - it makes the discovery and purchase of software incredibly fast and simple. I'll write more about that later, but the point is that Apple made the App Store available to not only new iPhone 3G owners, but first-generation iPhone owners, and owners of both first and second generation iPod Touch owners. For developers, that means millions and millions of customers that are only a few taps away from trying, and buying, their software. Overnight millionaires were made by the Apple App Store because Apple put it in front of so many customers at once. This is the right way to do it. Read more...

Microsoft is at CTIA this week to make a slew of announcements related to the Marketplace, Windows Live, and Windows Mobile 6.5. Expect all the details during Robbie Bach's keynote; however, if you simply can't wait, jump the break and we'll feed you some preliminary information as well as a few screenshots.

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"On a related note, the presentation confirmed that the new Windows Marketplace for Mobile will apply application updates directly on the device. However it also appears application updates will require developers to resubmit their application for approval which would then cost a submission token or fee and take time to process."

Allow me to place Long Zheng's words (quoted above) into context. When Microsoft unveiled the Windows Marketplace for Mobile a week ago, it outlined details pertaining to program enrollment and the application submission process. To join the program, developers pay an annual registration fee of $99. That fee includes five application submissions per year. When a developer consumes all five submission tokens in a given year, each additional application submission within the same year costs $99, whether it's a free or paid application.

Now, this probably wouldn't restrict the average developer too much, as he or she is unlikely to release five new applications in a given year. However, a real problem emerges once these submission tokens are applied to application updates as well as new applications, which is actually the case, if Long's words speak the truth. It's not uncommon for developers, especially those who actively respond to customer feedback, to release more than five application updates in a given year. But who can blame a developer for being discouraged when they're being slapped with a $99 fee per update after the fifth update?

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"Steve Ballmer, at the recently held developers conference at Sydney, Australia, said that Microsoft is working on a App-store like software distribution. Apple's iPhone and App-store have really stirred the Windows Mobile Market. Though there are many 'app-store like' distributions, for example - Handango, they are not something that is offered directly from Microsoft. But at the same time Ballmer also mentioned there are no plans to mimic iPhone's App-store."

Has anyone else noticed how talkative Steve Ballmer has been lately? For the longest time now we haven't heard anything from Microsoft and now it is as though they took the gag out of Steve's mouth! I know we reported on this a while back, but it is nice to see some of the higher-ups in Microsoft confirming what were before just rumors. No matter what Microsoft decides to do anything will be better than Handango. The last time I used Handango the site was so poorly laid out that I felt as though I was pulling out my own teeth. Though Microsoft will have to be careful shaking things up to much. We all know how much the Windows Mobile developers out there love Handango and might not want to use anything else! (That last sentance was pure sarcasm for anyone that didn't pick up on it!)

What if filling up on Microsoft Points was as easy as picking up your phone and having the cost added to your phone bill? That's how it is for NTT DoCoMo users in Japan, and hopefully, that's just a starting point.

If Microsoft is working with other carriers to make this available around the world, great. If not, they probably should. A vast majority of Xbox Live Marketplace and Zune Marketplace users probably have a mobile device of some sort - some have their reasons against directly linking their Windows Live ID and credit card together, while others don't always want to make the trek to their local store to pick up one of the many Microsoft Points cards on offer, so this third option makes a lot of sense.

"In the first two weeks of 2008 the number of people consuming my personal podcast with the Zune is WAY up. Over all my show download numbers are up about 15%. This is the largest growth my show has seen in a very long time. What this proves is that when you put Podcast front and center in the Zune Interface like the Zune team has, and make it a integral part of the Zune MarketPlace people are bound to check podcast out. Where Apple has largely failed in iTunes is that they have made podcast hard to find and a buried feature within the iTunes Interface. Today it is nearly impossible to find content that is fresh, the iTunes podcast interface is a wasteland of thousands of podfaded shows and huge numbers of single podcast episodes put up by network marketer�s."


(Sorry about the tiny image, I couldn't find anything bigger!)

Over at RawVoice, there is an incredibly interesting article up about recent podcasting trends and the Zune. In this instance users of the Zune and Zune Marketplace software make up 21.3% of their listeners! This might not seem like a lot, but take iTunes for instance, whose user base makes up only 38.7% of their listeners. Now seeing how the new Zune software and hardware has only been on the streets for a few months now, compared to the many years iTunes has been around, it appears that Apple might have to start taking the "little media player that could" a bit more seriously. Who knows, old Stevie might just take a look at this and declare that all of the Zune Marketplace users have joined good old Robbie Bach in a round a drinks, since you know, being a drunk is the only reason why anyone would want a Zune. Read more...

"Microsoft Corp. today announced that the redesigned Windows Marketplace Web site is now live and available for customers. Among a bevy of enhancements, Windows Marketplace adds integrated electronic software distribution through Microsoft�s digital locker. The digital locker enables customers to purchase and download software with increased safety and security as well as track purchase history and store software license information."



The new Windows Marketplace looks very attractive and has a nice "Vista" feel to it. Not only did Windows Marketplace get a new look, this new look works beautifully in Mozilla Firefox as well... unfortunately, it does not look to great in Pocket Internet Explorer though. :roll: