14 DAY TRIAL // Many Windows Phone users out there are looking to have popular Google applications loaded on their devices, though the Mountain View-based Internet giant doesn’t seem willing to bring them to this platform as of yet.
For some developers, however, this proved to be a new way to trick users into grabbing their own software, which, unlike official apps, came with a price.
Thus, last week, several applications that got through the Windows Phone Store approval process as Google apps were found to be, in fact, fake software, and were removed from the portal.
Said apps were called Hangouts, Google Voice, Google Search, Google+, Google Maps, and Gmail – email from Google, and came from a developer account named Google, Inc (instead of Google Inc., as TNW reports).
At the moment, the Internet company has only one application available in the Windows Phone Store, namely its search software, and offers it for free. The aforementioned fake apps, however, came with a price tag of $1.99 each.
Microsoft was alerted on the matter and has already removed said software from the portal, though it seems that various other fake apps are still present in the store.
According to Microsoft, its policies actually ask developers to submit only real apps to the store, though it comes as a surprise that said software actually managed to get through the submission process.
“Microsoft takes the intellectual property our ecosystem seriously and we use several layers of deterrence and response to help protect it. First, we encourage developers to take advantage of obfuscation tools for an added layer of protection,” Microsoft said in a statement.
“Because the Windows Phone Store is the only authorized source of public apps and games for the Windows Phone, developers can more easily police infringement of their apps by monitoring the Windows Phone Store and notifying Microsoft if infringement occurs.”
The company also says that developers are informed from the start that they should not infringe on the intellectual property of others.
Moreover, developers are provided with several tools that allow them to report infringement of any apps that they find in the Windows Phone Store. Apps that do not comply with the portal’s rules will be removed.
As TNW notes, however, the fact that any other fake apps are still available in the store is worrying, especially since the company claims to have tight review and approval policies. Hopefully, Microsoft will take a better look at them and will clean up the portal a bit more soon.