Windows Marketplace launching with 600 apps, or one bazillion times what the App Catalog has
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 28th 2009 1:03PM
posted Jun 28th 2009 1:03PM
So Microsoft France's product manager for Windows Mobile, Audrey Zolghadr, is saying that the company's upcoming Windows Marketplace launch will be accompanied by around 600 apps certified and available on day one. Depending on your perspective, that's either ridiculously anemic -- the iPhone's App Store has a couple orders of magnitude more currently available, for example -- or a veritable cornucopia. Though the Ovi Store has no shortage of "items" to buy, an overwhelming majority of those are currently wallpapers, ringtones, and the like, and Palm's App Catalog launched with so few apps that many folks (we're not naming names) literally had every app installed within a few minutes of buying the phone. At the end of the day, it's all about signal-to-noise ratio; if Microsoft can deliver 600 apps and half of those are terrific, they're on the right track -- though at this point, we're thinking the next battle in Smartphone Platform Wars doesn't really kick off until WinMo 7 swings by anyway.[Via PhoneArena and WMExperts]
super
Summed up in two words: Totally pathetic.
Probably half of those Windows Marketplace apps are fart apps and the rest are flashlights. And people are always spouting off about how crappy the Apple App Store is with 50,000 useless apps. How many useless apps are gonna be found with just 600 apps. What's going to prevent any app store from becoming filled with useless apps? Nothing. But the more apps there are there probably is a better chance of finding more useful apps. I feel bad for developers when users are saying they can't build decent applications. I doesn't seem likely that so many apps are useless.
Monster cable sucks.
+1,000,000,000,000
Good Luck Microsoft. :D
Windows
Walls
Front Door.
CCCCC-COMBO BREAKERRRR!!!
I'm pretty sure I already broke the combo, with something infinitely better than a tired internet meme even
EGOvoruhk: you mean boobs aren't a tired internet meme?
600 is a minuscule number compared to the bazillion third party apps available for WinMo.
Which can't be said about the beloved white brick... ;)
Why only 600 apps at the store, when there are so many Windows Mobile apps out there? Well, an awful lot of Windows Mobile apps are pretty old, and don't necessarily work on most of today's phones. Many were really abandoned some time ago. And many are pretty crappy. (I say this as an owner of a Tilt.) But really, it's not how many apps there are that matters. It's how good they are, and if they address your needs and interests. And of course the price counts. iPhone apps became pretty dirt cheap pretty fast, because there's such a vibrant, competive market.
Yeah buy either way you have to use an underpowered Winmo device.. and no one does that anymore thank god.
I don't think you know what you are talking about Erik. Almost all the most powerful devices are WinMo based.
The problem for WinMo was that regular people didn't know about the bazillion 3rd party apps, and they never got the exposure, the App Store gives, but hopefully Microsoft will keep the ability to just download and install cabs in WinMo7 because I'm sure they'll put restrictions on the Marketplace
Yeah Erik, cuz it's either an underpowered WinMo device (as you say), an underpowered iphone, or the pre. iphone sucks can't wait to get rid of mine, don't like sliding phones so the leaves the pre out, so I think my next phone will be winmo.
Windows Mobile is my favorite mobile platform... Admittedly I wouldn't recommend it to a friend, it's not easy to use, but I know how to configure it to be more useful and I can do more with it than any other platform on the market. I'd think people on this site would like windows mobile more considering it customization options.
Don't forget 90% of that number are free.
Can any of you back that up...
1) Show me a powerful winmo phone.
2) So the iphone is underpowered huh?
Cuz from the benchmarks all the blogs are showing, its the most powerful phone on the market, beating out the palm pre by 22%.
So uhhh... stop trolling?
Touch Pro2. Touch Diamond2. Touch Pro. Touch Diamond. Omnia. Omnia Pro. Toshiba TG01. Need I go on?
No Android love?
@Erik you're comparing a phone that can only do 1 thing at a time to a phone that can run as many programs simultaneously as RAM allows. Also that 22% number was talking about how fast the web browser loads pages over WIFI. They excluded WinMo because Opera Mini/Skyfire will crush all those best load times in half. Engadget blogged about it last year when Skyfire was still a Beta and I search everywhere and couldn't find it so here's the article: http://blog.laptopmag.com/mobile-browser-showdown-iphone-3g-vs-opera-mobile-and-skyfire
Browser NYT.com ESPN.com HULU.com Netvibes.com
Skyfire Beta 6 (sec) 8 (sec) 9 (sec) 4 (sec)
Opera 9.5.1 Beta 60 (sec) 59 (sec) 28 (sec) 44 (sec)
Safari 29 (sec) 28 (sec) 33 (sec) 54 (sec)
Opera Mini still crushes Skyfire's times but isn't as feature rich.
@Erik
Toshiba TG-01
Acer (forgot model number) also using Snapdragon
Omnia has a 600Mhz+ processor...
Uh anymore questions sir?
It's easy for benchmark test to prove "inferiority" when they're using phones with 528Mhz processors.
But the beauty of WinMo (and Android and Symbian)
You have the ability to have various processor speeds in various handsets.
You just failed hard time buddy.
The problem with WinMo is the software, not the hardware, although 90% of the phones are underpowered, that's not Microsoft's fault, as much as the manufacturers, but also people just go for cheaper products, so it's basically the same deal as with PCs. People buy the cheapest PC and say Windows sucks, where as the cheapest Macs are pretty expensive, but will give the uneducated consumer a better experience because of the better hardware. Bottom line is that Microsoft needs to make manufacturers follow better standards, and make WinMo less of a nuisance to use
Released phones... that show ACTUAL proof please.
Thanks,
again, stop trolling unless you have proof.
Dont just name phones that run Winmo. Cuz all the ones you listed are weak...
@Erik:
More like your argument is weak and you're just an angry little fanboy who feels insecure when the company you defend finds itself being outdone by its competition.
I'm not a big fan of WinMo, but I will admit that it has some of the most powerful phones, a lot more powerful than the iPhone. The iPhone is actually a weak smartphone if you compare it to so many other smartphones. It's just that North America dies for Apple products which is why it has so much exposure.
But still you provide no proof...
do you think name calling is gonna just make winmo better?
lol your logic is undeniable.
Which is why I think that MS is in a good spot. There are TONS of third party apps for WM, and having 600 of them in one place....just to start? A week after release, I think that number will surge quite a bit. Only time will tell though.
@Erik
From Wiki: "In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion."
That would be you. Shoo, little boy. Come back when you have pubes and/or the ability to make an intelligent argument.
Yup i was off topic all right :)
/s
Eric i will give you the proof that winmo is better once you can give me the proof that your point is correct. Prove the iPhone better if you got guts. I will have to agree WinMo is not the mobile OS for losers like MOST iPhone users. Only professionals and buisnessmen use WinMo coz they have brains.
There is no way you can prove the iPhone better because no common benchmarks exist. If you go purely on specifications then a number of phones are better than the iPhone. i know even 1.5 year old phones who are better than the iPhone 3G S(sucks).
Give it up Erik, these Winbots will defend WinMo to Steve Ballmer's sweaty end.
No one cares about WinMo any more, and the Engadget Apple-Hating Horde are having a hard time accepting the fact.
@Quix
Yeah i know bro.
I just wanted some freaking proof.
They are worse than the Apple fanboys.
At least the apple trolls have proof most the time.
lol @ Erik, they keep showing you proof and you just keep ignoring it. You must be either half blind or just a stupid troll.
Id say your a stupid blind troll, that doesn't know much about phones, and you think you are the shit but in reality you are just trying to sound cool and very ignorant.
WinMo can be put on underpowered and very powerful devices. What else do you want from HTC on their new devices to make them not 'underpowered' according to your blind trolling power standards?
btw Erik=Shirk=Shank. Check out the myspace link on his engadget profile. Re-ban please.
Eric you are not giving my freaking proof either. Prove the iPhone better if you can.
Eric you are a lameboy.
Do you people ever just take a step back and rethink your lives?
Stop arguing about mobile platforms. It's ridiculous. Each has it's own merits. End of.
NEWS FLASH!!!!
Apple hateboys are a big reason that Apple gets the exposure it does!
Do you really think that arguing about a product so much, making it take up most of the comment space on blog sites, is detrimental to it? If you hate them so much, shut up. Competition is good, I am an iPhone fanboy but I welcome anything to push Apple to innovate.
MS will never catch up to Apple in the cellphone market!
I hope for your sake that you weren't talking about marketshare, because...well, umm...
I guess you are from the US and the US is the world...right?
I know, they'd have to fall behind for that to happen. Given that they're STILL shipping more WiMo phones per quarter than the iPhone, and their market share is more than 4x as large. They will have to basically not release WinMo7 until 2012 in order to fall behind, and that will be a tragedy for consumers who still find that a years old WinMo OS is still superior to the slick looking new Apple OS.
By measurement of applications available, and device utility WinMo is far ahead, if you measure it by ease of finding those applications, and the restrictions placed on developers Apple is ahead. If you measure it by applicationsin an App store, Apple has more than a years head start, and forces their customers to only buy apps from them (unless you jailbreak which most users won't). Winmo users and developers have no incentive to use their app store, except as another additional app directory.
How about a standard cross-platform programming language and one giant app store where the phone manufacturers get a cut of the sale if it's sold on their device?
No, wait, this is the real world.
Dang, I hate the real world.
Android is the nearest so far...
maybe it will be like that in the future. with adobe making flash available to multiple oses maybe they will try the same with adobe air. this could allow programmers to just program for AIR and the end user can use all of these apps buy just using the AIR application.
You run Java stuff (including the games) in Windows Mobile.. so that's a 'start'.
Hm, Java ME may come closest- correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it supported (sometimes you have to install the runtime) on WinMo, BlackBerry, Palm OS, and some dumbphones?