Filed under: Windows Mobile, Microsoft
Windows Marketplace only for Windows Mobile 6.5 and up
Microsoft is preparing to launch Windows Marketplace for mobile phones. The Marketplace is Microsoft's answer to the iPhone App Store. It will allow Windows Mobile users to find purchase, and download mobile applications directly from their phones. But as we discovered this week, the service will only be available to users with Windows Mobile 6.5 phones. Microsoft has no plans to release a version of Windows Mobile 6.0, 6.1, or older devices despite the fact that millions of people already have mobile devices with older versions of Microsoft's mobile operating system.Unlike Apple, Microsoft also doesn't make it easy to upgrade from one version of Windows Mobile to the next. It's typically up to the phone manufacturers and wireless carriers to decide whether an upgrade will be available and the upgrade procedure can be cumbersome, to say the least. So odds are if you don't get a new phone running Windows Mobile 6.5 you won't be able to use Windows Marketplace.
That said, this isn't the first controversy surrounding the Windows Marketplace. Microsoft initially told developers that they'd have to pay a fee every time they issued an update for an application listed in the Marketplace. But after receiving strong criticism, Microsoft backed down. Maybe if there's a large enough stink around the Windows Mobile 6.5 requirement, Microsoft will come up with a way to let users with older phones use the Windows Mobile Marketplace.
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TimSykes said 1:32PM on 4-03-2009
I am sure XDA-Developers will have a WM6.5 build for old phones before any 6.5 phone is released.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/
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Tim said 1:54PM on 4-03-2009
I was right I went to check it out after I posted, and they already have bulids would on many of the old WM phones. I use a g1 now so I am a bit out of date on WM, but I will be getting it out tonight.
Daniel Blois said 1:55PM on 4-03-2009
I don't think Microsoft should back port it to older devices. Instead I think they should give huge incentives to Phone Manufacturers and OEM's to upgrade their handsets to WM 6.5. This would help Microsoft catch up on the playing field a little more. There are many issues with Windows Mobile and back porting the Software Store will only solve one of them. If they get more WM 6.5 phones out there (through purchase or upgrade) then they will be doing much better.
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David said 8:15AM on 4-04-2009
Agreed. Would I rather Microsoft spend its development efforts on back-porting Windows Marketplace to 6.1 and 6.0 or speed up development on 7.0? My vote is for the latter. As Daniel commented, to help Microsoft stem the flow of current WM users to other platforms, it should actively encourage manufacturers to upgrade their existing devices to WM 6.5 so they can get Windows Marketplace as well as the additional improvements in 6.5.
"Unlike Apple, Microsoft also doesn't make it easy to upgrade from one version of Windows Mobile to the next."
That's not a particularly fair comment. Apple has two hardware devices, the iPhone and iPhone 3G with varying amounts of memory. WM has a myriad of devices, using all varieties of different chipsets, technologies, form factors, input mechanisms. Microsoft can't simply roll-out an OS upgrade as simply as Apple can.
Microsoft have already commented on how WM 7 will have some sort of hardware abstraction layer so that it will be easier to roll out OS upgrades with less intervention by manufacturers, however WM 7 is still under development (this sounds like a significant architectural change to me - certainly one to benefit Microsoft, developers and users, however it will take time to develop).