At the launch of this year’s Mix10, Microsoft is announcing a new app store for Windows Phone 7.
The Windows Marketplace, to give its proper name will offer a new interface featuring a dynamic panoramic design and active merchandising to increase the discoverability of games and applications.
As part of Microsoft’s drive to make apps more accessible for both the developers and consumers, the marketplace will also offer operator billing, one time credit card purchases as well as advertising funded apps.
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New apps for Windows Phone 7 will be able to take advantage of new features appearing on the ‘phone itself including an Accelerometer, an intuitive control that responds to motion, location-based services, push notifications, camera and microphone support plus hardware accelerated and IIWS smooth streaming for what is billed to be the ‘highest quality content viewing experience’ in the market.
The new marketplace has already attracted a number of big names including Associated Press, Citrix, Comcast, Electronic Arts, Foursquare, IMDb, Konami, Match.com, Pandora, Photobucket, Seesmic and Shazam.
The marketplace launch is squarely aimed at bringing Microsoft further into the rapidly growing and potentially lucrative apps market. The launch, at Mix10, of initiatives to help developers build apps for the Windows platform includes a free developer pack to help start building apps.
A new Marketplace and a new ‘phone also means that old Windows Mobile apps will not be running on the new platform. In a recent blog post, Charlie Kindel from Microsoft confirms the break from previous applications but also confirms that support will still be available for older generation apps, “To be clear, we will continue to work with our partners to deliver new devices based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and will support those products for many years to come, so it’s not as though one line ends as soon as the other begins.”
We will bring you more updates to this story as the morning unfolds here at Mix10.
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