Windows Mobile Marketplace: For Unicorns Only

[Jason Dunn]

<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/ppct/auto/1238620814.usr1.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb; float: left; margin: 5px;" /></p><p>The illustration to the left is inspired by something I was told today: the forthcoming Windows Mobile Marketplace is going to be for <em>Windows Mobile 6.5 phones only</em>, not back-ported to Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.0 phones. That's right - the millions and millions of Windows Mobile phones out there today (40+ million I'd say in the past few years alone) will not have access to this forthcoming software directory. Only people that buy brand new phones, or perhaps a tiny percentage that will get a 6.5 upgrade for their phone, will be able to access this. They might as well made it available only to unicorns - both are mythical at this moment in time.</p><p>The strength of a software platform comes in numbers. Being the only one in the world with a fax machine means it's useless. Developers are excited about the Marketplace because, for the first time, they'll have direct access to the customer and can easily offer their software to them. But that audience is going to be very small at first, when it should have been very large.</p><p>I've been using Apple's App Store lately on an iPod Touch I purchased specifically for this reason, and I've never seen anything so easy to use in my life - it makes the discovery and purchase of software incredibly fast and simple. I'll write more about that later, but the point is that Apple made the App Store available to not only new iPhone 3G owners, but first-generation iPhone owners, and owners of both first and second generation iPod Touch owners. For developers, that means millions and millions of customers that are only a few taps away from trying, and buying, their software. Overnight millionaires were made by the Apple App Store because Apple put it in front of so many customers at once. This is the right way to do it.<MORE /></p><p>Microsoft has a strong platform, even if it's somewhat beleaguered at the moment, with a huge base of users. They finally get around to doing an application store after an early effort got deep-sixed by their own corporate culture, and what do they do? They make the choice to limit it to users of phones that haven't even been made yet - with Windows Mobile 6.5 not due on phones until Q4 of this year, and with phone networks (in North America at least) carrying seemingly fewer and fewer Windows Mobile phones than ever, it seems like the Windows Mobile Marketplace is going to have a rocky start. It's bad enough that Windows Mobile is one of the few mobile platforms that require the purchase of commercial tools to develop for, or that it's going to charge developers to have their apps listed ($99 for five). This was Microsoft's best chance to woo developers back into the fold, and they've botched it - badly.</p><p>I haven't seen the functionality of the Marketplace store in person yet, but even if they manage to completely nail the download, trial, and purchasing experience with their first effort (which is a tall order!) they've dramatically reduced the impact of the whole thing by restricting it to phones that won't come out until later this year. The Marketplace should have launched with a roar - Microsoft's decision to limit it in this way means it will launch with a whimper. Couple that with the fact that some users now have purchase paralysis because they don't want to buy a new phone and not have it be upgraded to 6.5, and you have the makings of some very hard next few months for Windows Mobile.</p><p><em>Jason Dunn owns and operates <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com" target="_blank">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys <a href="http://photos.jasondunn.com/" target="_blank">photography</a>, mobile devices, <a href="http://www.jasondunn.com" target="_blank">blogging</a>, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He loves Windows Mobile, though lately it feels like it's harder and harder to do.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//ppct/auto/1240336793.usr1.gif" /></p><p><strong>Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com/reviewteam.php" target="_blank">Thoughts Media Review Team</a>! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com/reviewteam.php" target="_blank">Then click here for more information.</a></strong></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//ppct/auto/1240336793.usr1.gif" /></p>

[Fritzly]

Is this a 1st of April joke or is it real?
I hope the former...

[Jason Dunn]

Is this a 1st of April joke or is it real?
I hope the former...

We don't do April Fools posts after noon mountain time (GMT -7). It's real. :(

[levimarshall]

Good work Microsoft. Thanks for pissing off your current customers.:mad:

I'm glad that there are other options out there.

I will file my divorce papers soon.

[Fritzly]

Therefore I am speechless!

The stupidity of such a move would not escape someone earning $9.00/hour; what is the problem with these people earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per year that miss it?

[efjay]

Come on, its Microsoft, were you expecting a sensible decision?

[Fritzly]

Come on, its Microsoft, were you expecting a sensible decision?

As a shareholder I would expect a profitable one for sure; could it also be sensible? Better! Surely I did not expect something so dumb.
Forget about customers but how many developers are getting on board and create software for an OS.... that will not available for a t least a couple of months?

[dorelse]

Assuming this isn't an April Fools joke...I think I need to rethink my decision to get a Touch Diamond (Sprint) phone.

Dare I say, I might wait for the Palm Pre!? and see what that's all about?

[Rocco Augusto]

I wonder what Microsoft's real internal reasoning for doing this is? Is this a scenario where they are trying to force users into newer handsets where they in turn sell more licenses? Is this something less dastardly where they just didn't think it through properly? I can't think of a logical reason off the top of my head to do something such as this. :confused:

[Gerard]

Is there perhaps a fundamental architectural change with WM6.5, sort of in the ballpark of the change from Palm-size PC to Pocket PC (WinCE 2.11 to WinCE3.0)? That'd be about the only really sensible reason to do this. Otherwise, if it's just a 'WM Store' app which will come included with WM6.5 devices shipped, there really seems no excuse not to offer downloads of such an application to users of earlier devices. I guess it could also be a streamlining thing aimed at simplifying the lives of third-party developers... design all your stuff for WM6.5 and don't worry about 'legacy' support... But considering that EVERY current device being sold is either WM6 or WM6.1, this is really not enough excuse for shooting themselves in the foot in so obvious a fashion. But hey, why would Ballmer want to be seen as taking a page from Apple's book? Better to embarrass yourself and your company and go your own way. Like Sony, with their endlessly shameful end user abandoning hardware compatibility shifts. And you think that absurd, stubborn modus operandi hasn't cost Sony hundreds of millions?

[martin_ayton]

Ever feel like you were stuck in a toxic and abusive relationship? One where you can see the amazing potential and you are prepared to stick it out because it might, it *should* come right soon. However, your partner just keeps coming back with stuff which says

"Let's see how committed you really are to this relationship - if I really abuse you will you stay? Will you? Huh?"

Microsoft - I'm talking about you. Windows Mobile devices ought to be the best out there. Bar none. The potential is huge, but something, somewhere is so screwed up in the way Microsoft seems to approach the product that I no longer believe that that potential will ever be fulfilled.

I have now spent a year trying and failing to get Exchange ActiveSync to work. I've replaced servers and updated software. I've spent thousands of pounds and I've spent 24 hours at the stretch (really!) on the 'phone to MS tech support and nothing works. The only outcome was MS leaving an open mail relay on my system which took the spammers about a minute to find and my company about 6 months to clear up the mess.

I object to having to hard-reset and re-install all my apps every 6 months or so to keep my 'phone working acceptably.

I object to having to lay out hundreds of pounds every 12 - 18 months to buy new hardware in order to get updated software. I don't have to do that with any other piece of tech I own - *everything* else has regular soft / firmware updates, even Ifi I have to pay for them.

I've had enough. This relationship is over. In August, when my next buying cycle comes around, I will buy a new device, and it will not have Windows on the label.

I have said this once before, so I apologise if I'm sounding like a scratched record (remember those?), I do still have the same 'phone as then and the opportunity to replace it hasn't come around yet. Soon though. I kept hoping the MS would wake up step up to the plate. I've stopped hoping.

Jason - serious question - How does it feel to be an MVP when MS does not actually appear to really value your opinion (or that of the other MVPs) at all? You're much more tied into this relationship than I am, and it would appear from recent posts that you're none too happy. Does the relationship have any future for you?

[soho_1]

You've waited 6 or 7 years for this platform to stabilize and take hold. What's another 3 or 4 years of your life?

Wait for 7.0 to gain traction and maybe 8.0 by 2012.

(It takes 10 years and 8 versions for Microsoft to build a product that just works. Look at IE.)

[emuelle1]

My frustrations with Windows Mobile have reached a boiling point, and I'm not seeing anything about WM 6.5 that makes me want to reverse my resolution that the Samsung Epix will be my last Windows Mobile device.

In the meantime, I have the iPhone 3.0 beta firmware running on my 1st generation iPod Touch, and I can say it's really making me want an iPhone. I think Windows Mobile was a good idea in it's time, but Microsoft is still stuck in an old development and distribution model and it's just not keeping up. I've had 8 Windows Mobile devices in the last 6 years, and there has been way too little change from version to version to justify the money and time I've spent on these things.

[efjay]

I wish there was a way for us as a userbase to stage an organised boycott of all things WM for 1 year to send the message to MS, no device purchases and no news coverage whatsoevere. It seems only drastic measures will make them listen to us, the consumer who actually pays for the devices they seem so cavalier about.

How about it Jason, switch PPC & Smartphone Thoughts to something else for a year?

[Jason Lee]

Steering away from the M$ bashing campaign and back to the topic at hand...

I don't really see this as much of an issue.

The MS app store is supposed to make it easy for not so knowledgeable users to find and download programs onto their windows mobile device.

The exact users that this market place is targeted at are not going to have any clue (ie. will NEVER install it). If they don't know enough how to find and install a program they sure are not going to know enough to install a market place program.

The only people this will make mad is you guys. But you already know how to find and install programs on your device... So how is this market place really going to help you? Sure it might save you a few steps from time to time.. But I certainly will not use it. I will continue to buy programs directly from the developer if at all possible.

I can see the reasoning why they might not release market place for existing devices. Market place is designed to fix a problem for a target user base. This problem that market place addresses is the same problem that will prevent these users from ever getting the market place program... Chicken or egg?

[Gerard]

And by that logic, Apple's 'genius' in marketing is to release the chicken and the egg in the same pretty package, and so it would seem that Microsoft is emulating that model in hope of cashing in on Apple's strategy. Unfortunately, at least in the opinion of some, they have failed to grasp that existing users of the platform (just as with iPhone 1.0 users or whatever the heck the thing was called) will not be happy at being excluded. It may seem a small thing to a power user, but the vast majority of WM device users are anything but. Give them a widely publicized 'WMStore app' (yeah, right, that'll be the day when Microsoft bothers promoting WM effectively!) to help them then get anything else they might want, something which places user-tailored suggestions at their fingertips, that might just mean something to the millions of users who really don't have much of a clue... like iPhone users.

There, a token Apple bashing thrown in for balance. But really, they've brought that image onto themselves, by unabashedly promoting their OS versions as being designed for idiots, if one is being honest about it. Funny thing about that (and rather off-topic admittedly) is that the one-button mouse tends to confound users like me. I've tried over the years, once in a blue moon anyway, to make something or other happen on a Mac. I can't. That single button mouse, it just won't do anything much for me. If I want to bring up a context menu for a link in a browser for example - how's that supposed to happen? No right button, and if I click-and-hold the way I would on a Pocket PC, nothing happens. I just don't get it. Must not be enough of a beginner or something.....

[emuelle1]

I definitely don't mean it if I come across as bashing. I've been involved here at Pocket PC Thoughts since 2004. I've spent a lot of money and time on devices.

I'm honestly not sure what to make of a "Windows Mobile App Store". I've said in other threads on Thoughts Media that the impression I get is Microsoft sees Apple making lots of money from an App store and sees an opportunity. I'm not very confident that they'll work as hard as Apple on the user experience, which is definitely not Microsoft's strength.

I don't really expect this to be a benefit to anybody but Microsoft. It looks like a raw deal for developers, and it doesn't look much better for the users.

[doogald]

AFunny thing about that (and rather off-topic admittedly) is that the one-button mouse tends to confound users like me. I've tried over the years, once in a blue moon anyway, to make something or other happen on a Mac. I can't. That single button mouse, it just won't do anything much for me. If I want to bring up a context menu for a link in a browser for example - how's that supposed to happen? No right button, and if I click-and-hold the way I would on a Pocket PC, nothing happens. I just don't get it. Must not be enough of a beginner or something.....

Sorry to continue the O/T, but you can use a multiple-button mouse on a Mac; it works just as you think it might when you right button/secondary click. (And, if you are stuck with that one-button monstrosity, just hold the "ctrl" key when you click for a right-click. Or, on an Intel notebook, you can set it so that holding two fingers on the trackpad while you click will be a secondary click as well.)

As for this decision, I don't know too much about 6.5 but is it possible that they are changing the application install procedure so that it supports in-place upgrading, requiring a different sort of mechanism than the CAB files that they are using now with pre-6.5? (Because it seems that every time I get an app update now on 6.0, it must remove the old version before it can install the new.)

[Gerard]

Thanks for the tips... gee, I thought Apple was supposed to be simple. Seems one has to get instructions on how to make the mouse work. With Windows and any $1 bin basic mouse, just right-click and the screen shows you something, from which you learn about context menus. If one were to poke around on a Mac for a while (as I have, a few times in the past 10 years, for a few rather uneventful moments at a time), it seems possible that one *might* stumble across Command>Click or other variants... but really, why make it so difficult? And I didn't know that a 'normal' mouse could be used with a Mac. That's interesting. And yet, anyone I know with a Mac seems content with their one-button mouse.

Hasn't XIP been there for a few OS versions already? Since PPC2003 I think, perhaps earlier. It's not used a lot perhaps, mostly for OS upgrades. And then there's the old CEF (common executable format) which was basically an embellished CAB file, containing some extra elements which allowed for installing to different chip architectures such as MIPS and SH3 and ARM, all from the same CAB-like file. Only a small handful of developers (Phatware was one I think) ever released software in that wrapper though, and it's been dropped altogether now.

[doogald]

Thanks for the tips... gee, I thought Apple was supposed to be simple. Seems one has to get instructions on how to make the mouse work. With Windows and any $1 bin basic mouse, just right-click and the screen shows you something, from which you learn about context menus.

And it's the same for a Mac. Just right-click, and you get context menus.

And, actually, the only mouse(s) that Apple now sells (the ironically named Mighty Mouse, in wired and Bluetooth variants) are technically single button, but can sense a left-click, right-click or even a center click as three distinct events.

[efjay]

Steering away from the M$ bashing campaign and back to the topic at hand...

I don't really see this as much of an issue.

The MS app store is supposed to make it easy for not so knowledgeable users to find and download programs onto their windows mobile device.




Personally speaking, I wouldnt bash if I didnt really want WM to succeed. And though you may be correct why not extend the Marketplace to everyone and increase the ease of use to current users and allow developers to have access to a large install base? Wouldnt it be nice to have one place to go for your apps rather than trawling the web? Just because we are savvy doesnt mean we wouldnt welcome a better experience for purchasing, installing AND backing up our applications.

[Jason Lee]

Personally speaking, I wouldnt bash if I didnt really want WM to succeed. And though you may be correct why not extend the Marketplace to everyone and increase the ease of use to current users and allow developers to have access to a large install base? Wouldnt it be nice to have one place to go for your apps rather than trawling the web? Just because we are savvy doesnt mean we wouldnt welcome a better experience for purchasing, installing AND backing up our applications.

I do agree that it would be nice to have market place available on WM6. The more options the better. For me to use it would depend greatly on the content. Many of the programs I run come from individuals over at xda-developers... I don't think we will ever see any those programs in the market place. And not just xda. I get programs from all over tha place from people who will not be able to afford to put even one program into the market place. anyway.. I'm drifting. :)

I just think that if MS is not going to roll out market place to older devices my reasoning above might be why. Just a guess though.

Unless there is some drastic code change in 6.5 to where it isn't possible to run market place on WM6, it just seems silly to me to not release it.

And from the builds of 6.5 I have played with so far I don't think it is a compatibility with WM6 issue. Every program I have installed on 6.5 has run just fime so far.

Who knows what all is involved in the decision process at MS...

[Janak Parekh]

The MS app store is supposed to make it easy for not so knowledgeable users to find and download programs onto their windows mobile device.

The exact users that this market place is targeted at are not going to have any clue (ie. will NEVER install it). If they don't know enough how to find and install a program they sure are not going to know enough to install a market place program.

The only people this will make mad is you guys. How about developers? Imagine a developer who is faced with a listing cost for a store where 90% of the potential devices won't work with it.

Moreover, what you say above isn't strictly accurate. Apple rolled out OS 2.0 with the App Store to all iPhone users, and that was critical for establishing a fast userbase. They did this partially by making it dead simple to do a firmware upgrade: you dock your iPhone, it asks you if you want to install it, you press a button, it updates it and keeps all of your software and preferences in place, except with a shiny new App Store to boot.

By doing this, Apple made sure the App Store had a large userbase from day one. This helped its rapid adoption, and while the Marketplace may eventually gain traction, this is going to slow it down significantly.

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

Thanks for the tips... gee, I thought Apple was supposed to be simple. Seems one has to get instructions on how to make the mouse work. This is completely offtopic, but: the philosophy (whether you agree with it or not) is that regular users shouldn't need to do most right-click tasks, that UI design should be such that you only need one click. That's why Apple's Mighty Mouse, while having right-click support on a single-switch mouse (via a sensor that detects where you clicked it on the surface), has it disabled by default.

And yet, anyone I know with a Mac seems content with their one-button mouse. Strangely, I really really like the Mighty Mouse. I don't quite know why. ;) I do reconfigure it to enable right-clicking.

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

I do agree that it would be nice to have market place available on WM6. The more options the better. For me to use it would depend greatly on the content. Many of the programs I run come from individuals over at xda-developers... I don't think we will ever see any those programs in the market place. And not just xda. I get programs from all over tha place from people who will not be able to afford to put even one program into the market place. anyway.. I'm drifting. :)

I just think that if MS is not going to roll out market place to older devices my reasoning above might be why. Just a guess though. I don't think so. I think the real explanation is far simpler: MS developer time.

I'm no longer an MVP (resigned in Jan 2007), and so I have no idea as to the development plan for WM6.5 or 7, but one thing I distinctly remember Microsoft telling us was that they had a limited number of man-hours to do development, and that every feature was a trade-off. It sounds to me that they traded-off backwards compatibility with the Marketplace for something else. Given the heterogenous nature of the platform, backwards support is certainly harder than Apple issuing a OS update to all its devices. That said, it still mystifies me how Apple, Palm, etc. are making such rapid progress while Microsoft is going far slower.

--janak

[Jason Dunn]

Jason - serious question - How does it feel to be an MVP when MS does not actually appear to really value your opinion (or that of the other MVPs) at all? You're much more tied into this relationship than I am, and it would appear from recent posts that you're none too happy. Does the relationship have any future for you?

Yeah, it's been hard - especially lately. It's depressing to see what could have been a world-class operating system languish and not get the attention it deserves. With the iPhone doing so well, and the Palm Pre getting so much attention, it's hard to "keep the faith" sometimes. I see a light at the end of the tunnel, though it seems sometimes like the tunnel keeps moving further away. :rolleyes: I think there's been some much-needed changes in leadership on the Windows Mobile team, though you might not think so given this decision about the Marketplace...

[Twain]

I hate to post a contrarian response to all of this hand wringing about what Microsoft is not doing, but consider this.

In the vacuum created by Microsoft deciding not to cater to WM 6.0 and 6.1 (or older) users, why aren't we complaining to Handango and Pocket Gear? These two entities have been selling Windows Mobile software for a long time. There is no reason they can't develop webbased store front applications that download software directly to devices. It's been a long time since I've bought software from those websites -- for all I know, they already have such a store front. They already have business models and payment schemes with which developers are familiar.

My point is, it is really too easy for everyone to become excited about the "next shiny thing" Microsoft is promising and forget about other options we may have. Microsoft understands this, we know it, but we get sucked in every time. Bottom line: let's appeal to Handango and Pocket Gear with a sense of competition and let Microsoft know that they aren't the only game in town. After all, even the vaunted Apple store front has (or will soon have) competition in the form of other store fronts selling iPhone and iPod software that won't be "officially approved" by Apple.

[Jason Dunn]

In the vacuum created by Microsoft deciding not to cater to WM 6.0 and 6.1 (or older) users, why aren't we complaining to Handango and Pocket Gear? These two entities have been selling Windows Mobile software for a long time. There is no reason they can't develop webbased store front applications that download software directly to devices. It's been a long time since I've bought software from those websites -- for all I know, they already have such a store front.

Both Handango and PocketGear have mobile storefronts to one degree or another. We just announced PocketGear's app a while ago - turns out it wasn't so much an application as a Web page that loaded up. The key point here though is that the ONLY way an application marketplace makes sense is if it's on EVERY device. I suspect the number of customers that have either Handango or PocketGear's app stores installed are rather small. Also, neither one has been very impressive from what I've seen - hence the clamour for Microsoft to do something in this space and get it right.

[Twain]

Jason,

So, you believe that if an application is placed on every device, people are much more likely to use it. My thought is that (1) if the existing "apps" by Handango and Pocket Gear don't meet expectations the user community needs to provide them that feedback; and (2) an alternative to increasing the number of customers is for Handango and Pocket Gear to do some good old-fashioned advertising.

I remain unconvinced, based on Microsoft's long track record of producing less than stellar applications in the mobile space, that waiting for Microsoft to "get it right" will yield anything that meets our expectations. They have consistently disappointed me with their software. The only recent shining example lately is Live Search.

Twain

[Gerard]

Ah yes, memory stirs... Anyone else remember losing banking transaction records thanks to Microsoft Money? That dog came installed in EVERY Pocket PC back in the day, then got dropped somewhere around 2002 I think. I tried to make it work, really I did, but what a zoo that thing was.

And then there was the nifty way that AOL email was installed on every PPC back in 2000. Never having had use for AOL (well okay, once, for 3 weeks when Telus was being impossible about setting up my dialup account - and then it was a royal pain getting AOL to stop my service before the trial month was over) it really bothered me having it in ROM. And I was far from alone. Many device user forums were littered with complaints, and outright begging, with folks asking 'how can I delete this garbage?' And the answer, sadly always the same... 'Go to \Windows\Start Menu\Programs, tap and hold on the AOL shortcut, then select Delete from the pop-up menu.' Not very satisfying, but at least it kept AOL from glaring one in the face on every search through the menus.

If the app store were great, and I mean really well designed and with close to flawless follow-up service (registration concerns, well maintained archives of user downloads and account transactions, support by email, etc.), and not too much overhead in terms of bandwidth use above the basic download itself, I think many users would welcome it in their devices. Of course a lot of us tech-head curmudgeons would delete the shortcut immediately... I probably would. Still, if they did a great job, it'd be less offensive than AOL and MS Money. What am I saying? Why would they do a great job this time around?

[Jason Dunn]

So, you believe that if an application is placed on every device, people are much more likely to use it.

Yes - the Apple App Store is proof of that. It's brilliant, and in my mind, the most important application on the whole device.

My thought is that (1) if the existing "apps" by Handango and Pocket Gear don't meet expectations the user community needs to provide them that feedback; and (2) an alternative to increasing the number of customers is for Handango and Pocket Gear to do some good old-fashioned advertising.

1) I'm sure that feedback has been provided, though not by me. I don't think Handango has ever done anything based on feedback.

2) Here's the hard reality: most users of Windows Mobile smartphones don't install ANY applications because they don't know they can. Most don't visit sites like this. Handango and Pocketgear cannot reach these people to get them to install their store app. It has to be in the ROM image of every device shipped to gain the critical mass it needs.