Windows Mobile App Store Goes Live. No Apps Available Yet

At MWC this year Microsoft announced that a Windows Mobile App Store would soon be entering the market to take on the stores started by Apple, Google and Blackberry.  Now a Windows Mobile portal has launched with a mobile-formatted layout, unfortunately that’s about it, the site promises to have apps “Coming Soon” but an exact date has not yet been released.

What we do know is that the portal will allow for on-device downloads directly from developers, while it looks like the company may be moving away from the “Standalone App Store Format” and instead moving towards an internet portal type of setup, although that fact is still unknown. One huge benefit of a portal as pointed out by Slashgear is the fact that it would be much easier for Microsoft to manage than a stand alone application.

On the other hand Slashgear also points out that:

On the downside, however, is the fact that an online portal store lacks the finesse of a standalone client.  It would not offer multiple simultaneous downloads, for instance, nor offline browsing, and software updates would be left to individual apps to handle rather than centralized in one place.

If you absolutely can’t wait to see the portal feel free to visit: http://client.marketplace.windowsmobile.com/.