14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is getting ready to release into the wild the latest flavor of its mobile operating system, Windows Mobile 6.5, which will come to the market along with a series of services that have been designed specifically for the handsets running under the platform. One of these services, namely the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which will kick off this fall along with Windows Mobile 6.5, is expected to become rather popular among users, and now a few more tidbits on it have emerged to the Web.
Todd Brix, Senior Director for Mobile Platform Services Product Management at Microsoft, who is set to talk at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference about the latest achievements regarding the software portal, announced this morning through The Windows Mobile Blog that the Windows Marketplace for Mobile would also become available for mobile phones running under older iterations of the platform, namely for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 devices.
Handsets that run under the 6.0 and 6.1 versions of the platform will receive Windows Marketplace support before the end of the ongoing year, announces Todd Brix, while also stating that developers will have this way the opportunity to offer their software solutions for a number of more than 30 million Windows Mobile devices that currently exist into the wild. For what it's worth, this seems to be great news for Windows Mobile phone users owning older phones that are not eligible for an upgrade to the 6.5 variant of Microsoft's mobile OS.
Among the other pieces of information that have been unveiled, we can count the fact that Windows Marketplace is set to be opened for application submissions in a number of 29 supported countries on July 27. The launch will also coincide with the disclosing of details regarding a Windows Marketplace developer contest. One more thing that should be added is that the software portal will include a "Business Center" category where users will find business applications listed for download.