The web version of the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will go live in the Autumn, when the Mango update becomes available, and will offer users a fully-featured view of each app, along with reviews and screenshots. It’s a service currently offered by both Apple and Google, whose respective app catalogues vastly outweigh Microsoft’s 17,000.
Having a controlled online presence is good news for the platform’s 42,000 registered developers. One such programmer has stated of the move that “As a Windows Phone developer, you [will] get all of the added visibility with no extra work.” He went on to say that they “will also have more placement areas in which to provide featured apps with extra visibility and merchandising possibilities.”
The online version of the Marketplace will be synced with users’ Windows Live accounts, allowing them to buy apps on their computers and have them downloaded to their phone wirelessly.
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