It may seem a little early, but Microsoft has just announced that the Marketplace is getting prepped for the release of Windows Phone 7. For those who missed the news, MS also launched developer tools for the new OS just recently.
These new update will certainly entice plenty of developers to work on apps for the OS as the store shows a promising degree of marketability. The new interface will be adapted to the new UI for WP7 and users will also get to test applications prior to making a purchase. While this may seem like a small feature, plenty of people would still appreciate knowing if an app will really be worth the few extra Pounds to download. Naturally, handling one-time payments, credit card details and other similar functions are already getting set up.
One little thing that has been catching our eye however, are “ad-funded applications”; no word yet of the ads on these apps will be permanent or dynamic –which means that the apps will automatically download new ad content. This will certainly make some apps cheaper (or even free) but they can be quite annoying –just like computer software that uses live ads.
Speaking of apps, expect to see some impressive new games for WP7 with the introduction of the XNA Games Studio 4.0 and the new Visual Studio. XNA will be bringing full 3D to the mobile phones –this means that third party video game developers will have more to play with on the mobile phone, though expect to still see some pre-rendered elements as these often help conserve resources. The Visual Studio will allow devs to create games for the PC, the mobile phone and the Xbox with just one set of codes (and a few extra lines for device specific commands).
Get to know more about the new WP7 Marketplace at Know Your Mobile.
