Microsoft announced earlier this year that the Windows Marketplace for Mobile was expected to be launched sometime during the fall, along with the first mobile phones powered by the company's Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, and it seems that things are already starting to move on. In a recent interview with MobiFrance, Audrey Zolghadr, Windows Mobile product manager at Microsoft France, stated that the portal was on track for the fall release.

Moreover, she also announced that the Marketplace would be launched with 600 applications certified and available for download, out of a number of more than 20,000 software solutions available for the Windows Mobile platform. For what it's worth, the number seems good enough for the release, especially when compared with other app portals, and the Marketplace should see a lot of traction from users, especially given the fact that the next iteration of the OS is expected to be a great step forward when it comes to the mobile experience.

According to Audrey Zolghadr, the upcoming WM 6.5 should be something more than just an upgraded version of the platform, and we already know that the Redmond company decided to integrate a wide range of new services with it, including the Marketplace, MyPhone, Live (Messenger, Live Spaces, Hotmail), and others. A new interface should also emerge, providing a faster access to applications, Internet or contacts. At the same time, a series of devices already available on the market with WM 6.1 is expected to be upgraded to 6.5 as soon as the platform becomes available.

The Integration of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile is, indeed, one of the enhancements that future WM-based phones will benefit from, since the portal should offer access to a wide range of software solutions to enable the personalization of handsets. The software giant already enabled developers to start submitting their apps to the portal, and also released a series of guidelines for them, which have been recently updated, it seems, and can be found here (PDF). The interview with Audrey Zolghadr is available here (translated from French)