Gecko is developed by a member of the Windows Mobile community and serves as an application store that allows users to download Windows Mobile apps over the air. Inspired by the iPhone App Store and the Ubuntu Package Manager, the Gecko App Store will serve as the unofficial application store as users await an official solution from Microsoft.

Developers can submit their applications completely free to Gecko for listing. One thing that is great about the Windows Mobile community are developers who create solutions where the need arises without concerns for monetizing. Take the community at XDA-Developers for instance, and now the developer behind Gecko. Gecko has no plans for monetization right now, according to the developer who had left a comment at IntoMobile.

You can download Gecko onto your device and test it out at GetGecko.org.

In the future, Gecko should work like the iPhone App Store. It will automatically poll the net to see if your apps are up to date and give you over the air updates.

For a solution like Gecko to work, I’d like to see how it handles protected and purchased contents. The applications purchased via the iPhone are coded with a DRM. With Windows Mobile, often times, there are no additional DRMs–developers either “trust” users to pay for their apps or use some sort of serial or unlock code, which makes it a burden on consumers to manage themselves. If Gecko can eliminate those unlock codes, we may have a winner.