Windows Mobile Marketplace Website Comes Online

We know very little about the Windows Mobile marketplace. Microsoft was very quiet about it at MWC - no screenshots, no specifics details. At first, the word was that only Windows Mobile 6.5 devices could use the Marketplace, but we later found out that it may be available for 6.1 devices as well.

Now, it looks like there is a website online that may give us some more details about the Marketplace when it comes online halfway through this year. The URL is client.marketplace.windowsmobile.com. Going there reveals a mobile-formatted "coming soon" screen. This could very well imply that the marketplace wouldn't be an application, but rather a mobile-formatted website, thus explaining why it'll work on WinMo 6.5 and previous versions. Hopefully the Marketplace isn't simply a mobile-formatted website, because having an internet-based app store would disallow advanced functionality like simultaneous downloads and intelligent application updating, as found on the iPhone. We'll have to keep an eye on this.

Thanks, anonymous tipster.