RSSWindows Marketplace for Mobile now available in browser, iTunes' App Store still not
By Tim Conneally | Published November 12, 2009, 10:48 AM
Sure, Apple created the most popular and well-stocked mobile app store in the market, but does Apple provide a Web-based interface to it? No. Through Apple's official channels, you can only browse the store's contents in iTunes or on your iPhone/iPod Touch.
There is an unofficial site hosted on Google App Engine which provides roughly the same experience Apple provides in iTunes, but it lacks search functionality, and if you try to download something, it launches the iTunes installer.
To prevent this problem, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, the app store for Windows Phones, launched a Web-based storefront yesterday. Users can now go to marketplace.windowsphone.com to browse, search, buy, and download Windows Mobile apps from within their browser.
When users select an application from the site, it's put a the download queue which will immediately run the next time the Marketplace client is run on the user's mobile device.
"Marketplace has been extremely active and I couldn't be happier with the reactions from both developers and customers," Microsoft's senior director of mobile services, Todd Brix said. "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."
Out of the many app stores put up in the last year, only a few storefronts have been brought to the Web browser. The Web-based Android Market, for example, provides a weak overview of what is available instead of an actual database of the more than 10,000 Android apps available. Users cannot buy directly from the official Web interface, either.
The Web interface for BlackBerry App World, however, has a substantial catalog which can be browsed, and apps can be sent as emailed links to the user's device.
Funny how just when this move is made by Microsoft and BetaNews writes this article, Apple also makes the same (but partial) move. The music portion of the iTS is now available to web browsers: http://www.macworld.com/.../11/itunes_preview.html
I doubt it will be long before Apps are added (or Apple will determine its not relavent). Music is universal, but iPhone/iPod Touch apps essentially require both the device and iTunes so where does the browser enter except in competing with 3rd parties already using web services to provide this for the App Store?
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|Sometimes, it's a lot easier to search for apps (and view descriptions and such) on a larger screen... Android Market suffers from this problem too. There are 3rd party sites that provide it for Android and I have to admit that I have used them a few times when I don't feel like spending an hour scrolling on my phone.
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|iTunes works fine on a 15" monitor with 640x480 on up to any absurdly large screen with an absurdly large resolution.
And, as I said, there are a number of 3rd parties doing the same for the iPhone.
So, sorry, not sure what your point is.
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|You could already browse music from a webbrowser for the Zune for quite some time now fyi...
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|It'll take about 3-5 years for processor speed to be good enough for serious WinMo apps. Windows Mobile 8 (maybe 9) will be out by then and totally blow any teenager toy from Apple out of the water. The business world isn't gonna use the latest-then iPhone in 5 years...
Apple has 100,000 apps of mostly 2 and a half weekends worth of coding. That's..just qu33r.
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|So? Who cares. Why would you need it in a browser? Why would you want it in a browser? It's already on the iphone and touch, it will look amazing on the tablet, so why would you need it in a browser? No reason. As far as the 'competition' goes...you have to duplicate the entire experience, phone, music software, appstore, user interface experience and nobody has even come close to that. Plus over 100,000 apps...not there either. Everyone has a long way to go and oh by the way the last time we checked 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA was still open for business and had not shut its doors, nor announced any intention to do so.
Give me a break....NEXT!
Love,
Michael
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|So if Apple did this you would praise it above and beyond all of things as clearly you are a fanboy... who cares if it has 100,000 apps...Half of those apps are demos to get you to buy the real item, another big percentage of them are useless altogether, the majority of them are just duplicates.
Winmo has quite a lot of apps as well....You may not know this but apps for windows mobile have existed for far longer then the ipod even became an idea.
The only thing apple did differently was add it to their device and make a long process out of getting an app approved.
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|Hmm...don't these articles sound like the articles about the songs in iTunes years ago? It didn't matter, iTunes wasn't so great and [fill in the blank] had the best music buying experience on the planet that would crush iTunes. BuyMusic.com even went as far to exclude Mac users since iTunes and iPods were only for Macs at that time.
Microsoft may recover some ground but they're going to have to offer something that the others offer--a compelling platform, and not just Windows compatibility. Putting the application store in a browser window or a specific application doesn't matter as much as a seamless experience and ease of use.
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|Will Microsoft force app owners to deploy apps thru marketplace like Apple does? It's good on one hand so that apps are easy to find, but on the other hand developers should have the freedom to do what they want. There are THOUSANDS of apps out there that no one knows how to find.
Regardless, as an app developer I would want my app in the marketplace. Once this takes off, users won't look anywhere else.
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|im pretty sure the appstore is going to stay in control.
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|BlackBerry AppWorld has a nice web front-end as well since quite some time.
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|It's all a matter of time when all those WinMo apps that are out there to get into this market place...and then Apple Market will seem so tiny.....
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|How long have WinCE/PocketPC/WinMo devices been available, 7 or 8 years now? If there aren't more than 2000 applications by now, why would there suddenly be more than 100,000 for the platform?
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|Actually, WinMo is the largest app platform... The problem has been organizing and cataloging all the applications that are available (Handango has done a good job over the years).
The problem with doing that is that WinMo (and Android, and BlackBerry, and even Palm) are open platforms. I can develop apps for any of those platforms (literally) and deploy them as I see fit. I do not have to go through an approval process. I don't have to go through any kind of market or app store or anything. I can develop and sell my applications directly from my website and anyone can install them on their device. If I want to develop and deploy an application for WinMo and Android users just at my office, no problem. I cannot do the same thing for the iPhone. Can I develop applications for any of those platforms for free? Yes. But not for the iPhone. For the iPhone I have to first pay for the development kit. Then, I have to pay to get it reviewed through the app store. Then I need to pay each and everytime someone buys my application. Why would I want to do that when I can simply make 100% of the profit myself and distribute my application as I see fit?
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