Microsoft´s application store flawed?
The first cell phones running Windows Mobile 6.5 were officially released earlier today and as you probably know already, they all feature access to Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The guys at msmobiles made two screenshots of the online store, of the US and German version of the website respectively. Can you spot the differences? The German counterpart of the marketplace sports a significantly lower number of available applications, plus you are not allowed to see all programs, but only these pertaining to the region you are in. The guys at msmobiles are of the opinion that there are two major reasons behind the discrepancy. Aside from $99 per year, Microsoft requires another $10 for every single country that developers want to sell their application in. In case they are ready to foot the bill, developers have to translate the description of the program and its interface into the official language of the relevant country. While this won´t be much of a problem when it comes to customers across the US or people living in larger countries, the policy might mean that a significantly lower number of applications is available to Windows phone users in smaller countries.
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Things that are NOT allowed: