I’m pleased to introduce a few much anticipated upgrades for Windows Marketplace for Mobile going live today. We introduced Windows Marketplace with the launch of Windows phones on October 6th and promised a second wave of features in November. Today, we’re adding more advanced anti-piracy protection and an improved developer portal for our registered ISVs, as well as introducing PC based shopping and account management for Windows phone customers.
Developer portal improvements and stronger anti-piracy protection
We’ve been gathering input on what we can do to improve the developer experience and have made some subtle but important enhancements to the developer portal to enable easier uploading of images, greater insight into account status and several other refinements based on feedback from developers. Today’s update also provides more advanced anti-piracy protection. While the underlying technical changes will be transparent for customers, developers will now be able to take advantage of these new protections by following the steps outlined in this anti-piracy whitepaper. As always, updates to existing applications can be submitted for free. To learn more about developing applications for Windows phones, head over to the Windows Mobile for Developers site.
Browse and buy applications from the PC
While we’ve heard great feedback on the Marketplace experience on Windows phones, sometimes people just want the benefits of a shopping on a PC. Starting today, Windows phone customers can browse, buy and download applications online at the Windows Marketplace for Mobile site. The selected applications are delivered wirelessly to the customer’s Windows phone and install the next time the Windows Marketplace client runs on the device. This creates another way for customers to easily find and purchase applications and gives developers a whole new level of exposure.
Marketplace has been extremely active and I couldn’t be happier with the reactions from both developers and customers. We’ve been open for just over one month and already we can see that there’s demand for an application marketplace that doesn’t compromise on quality or experience. I look forward to providing a more detailed update on Windows Marketplace for Mobile when we extend the service to Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 customers later this month.