WinMo Wrap: Marketplace Hits All WM 6.x Phones; Opera Mobile Advances
The week marches on and today being Saturday means it is time to recap the recent happenings in the world of Windows Mobile. The Windows Marketplace for Mobile only launched for phones running WM 6.5 a week ago, but this week it hit all phones running WM 6.x. Those with phones running WM 6.0 or 6.1 can now get into the Marketplace by downloading the app to the phone. As is the case with most online app stores, the new Marketplace provides OTA purchasing and downloading of apps right on the phone.
Opera Mobile has long been one of the best browsers on the Windows Mobile platform, many would claim it is the best, and the newest version has cemented that position. Opera Mobile 10 has updated the user interface to make it less cluttered and easier to use, while making improvements to the browsing capabilities of the program. The new interface is optimized for touchscreen navigation, bringing good usage benefits to current smartphones. Tabbed browsing and the Speed Dial features add to the full-featured usage of Opera Mobile. It is no wonder that Opera Mobile is the default browser on HTC phones.
Office 2010 is in full preview mode, and the new mobile version of the next Office suite is now available for Windows Phones. The suite can be obtained through the Marketplace, and is restricted to phones running WM 6.5.
ive been very impressed w opera 10 on my treo pro on sprint. mint.com and autotrader.com are very brisk. touch scrolling great and the tabbed browsing much improved. the speed dial is awesome. jkonthe run looks great on it
Thanks for the heads up on the Office 2010 Beta – off to install it on my new and absolutely gorgeous HTC HD2.
Been to Windows Mobile Marketplace but can only see the current Windows Office Mobile – is the 2010 beta only available to the US?
I don’t know but it wouldn’t surprise me.
It’s a good thing that Marketplace is opening up to all 6.x phones, though it would be better if included even older phones…
And has anyone here actually browsed what’s available? It’s still slim pickings indeed! A Google search on any Marketplace category turns up far more apps being sold at sites other than Marketplace.
Microsoft really needs to something to entice those developers and sellers.
Yes, Microsoft’s Marketplace is a little bit disorganised at the moment. The biggest problem seems to be the regional separation that they’ve imposed which results in a tiny selection just about everywhere but the US. They really need to have one market worldwide and do more to encourage developers to move their apps over from competing retailers.