[emuelle1]

I'm likely, if I don't ditch Windows Mobile, to just avoid the app store. It works for Apple because Apple does spend a lot of time thinking about the usability. Microsoft has a habit of saying "hey, somebody else is making lots of money at this, so we should too!" Advertising and search are two things I can think of off the top of my head, neither of which Microsoft has done well at all. Live search is useless. If I need to find a page on Microsoft's site, I can find it a lot faster on Google than I can on Microsoft's Live search engine.

Apple rolled out the App store after spending some time thinking that they would eventually have to allow 3rd party applications on the iPhone but wanted to maintain control over the platform. I see no indication that Microsoft has processed this any farther than "Hey, Apple did really good at this. If we duplicate the concept, we can make lots of money too!"

I want to be wrong, but I have little confidence that a Windows Mobile app store will provide any benefit to users or developers.