Marketplace – Not for you, you, you or you.

It’s late here in the UK. Nearly midnight, but things need to be said. We’ve been following the launch of Marketplace quite closely here at coolsmartphone.com. First, Microsoft was to charge developers for submitting updates to their version of the App Store. Luckily there was a change of heart and updates became free for developers. We all breathed a sigh of relief. Now all we had to worry about was the compatibility of Marketplace for existing Windows Mobile owners.


Today we found something out. Marketplace is for Windows Mobile 6.5 and above. Only.


Millions of Windows Mobile owners out there today simply won’t be able to use it. 6.5 isn’t out there yet, so who’ll be buying with Marketplace? Maybe a few people, later this year. Look over the fence at the iPhone crowd and you’ll see the first iPhone 2G owners quite happily using their App Store right next to the 3G owners of today. Customers are king, old or new. Keep them happy. Over the years I’ve felt that the network operators and Microsoft simply want the new customer – updates rarely arrive on network-locked handsets and new Microsoft software only appears when you throw your phone in the bin and buy a new one in the shop. This is outdated, this is wrong.


People considering the purchase of a 6.5-powered device are already seeing Windows Mobile 7 leaking all over the web, whilst 6.1 and 6.0 owners are having the door to the sweet shop closed in their face.