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Windows For Devices
your Windows® embedded community
In a blog posting yesterday, 
Todd Brix (right), Microsoft's senior director for mobile platform services management, wrote, "We introduced Windows Marketplace with the launch of Windows phones on October 6th and promised a second wave of features in November. Today, we're adding more advanced anti-piracy protection and an improved developer portal for our registered ISVs, as well as introducing PC based shopping and account management for Windows phone customers."
According to Brix, owners of Windows phones -- Windows Mobile 6.5 is currently supported, and versions 6.0 and 6.1 will be supported later this month -- can now browse, buy, and download applications via a PC and the Windows Marketplace for Mobile site (pictured below). Rather than requiring PC-phone synchronization after a purchase, the process reportedly involves a text notification being sent to a phone, to which applications are then downloaded directly.
Brix added that Microsoft's portal for Windows Marketplace for Mobile ISVs (independent software vendors) now includes "easier uploading of images, greater insight into account status, and several other refinements based on feedback from developers." Updates to the online store also include more advanced anti-piracy protection, he wrote.
According to a whitepaper provided by Microsoft, the Marketplace's standard level of anti-piracy protection requires no changes to programs' source code, yet ensures that installation files can never be copied to an unlicensed phone. As depicted below left, .CAB installation files are transmitted using a secure HTTPS connection, run immediately, and then deleted, the company says.
An "advanced" level of anti-piracy protection (above right) offers an additional layer of protection, based on license keys, according to Microsoft. Here, developers are given a few lines of code to placed in an application, usually at the top, after which the application has to be recompiled. The code is designed to check for the existence of a license key, which is assigned when a user purchases an application and is "uniquely tied to the application and the device."
Background
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According to Microsoft, an annual registration fee of $99 lets developers submit up to five applications per year, and each additional submission will cost $99. Application updates are free, and the fee is waived for student developers who are registered in Microsoft's DreamSpark program, the company adds.
The 70 percent revenue share being offered to developers is identical to that reportedly offered to developers by Apple, with its successful App Store for the iPhone. However, Microsoft's reference to "transparency" is obviously meant to differentiate its approval process for apps from the one already offered by Apple.
According to widespread reports, Apple can take months to approve an application for the App Store, provides little or no feedback during the process, and often summarily rejects apps that it feels compete with its own offerings. As a result, a shadow ecosystem has arisen, serving up non-approved applications to "jailbroken" iPhones via tools such as programmer Jay Freeman's Cydia installer.
The openness of the Windows Mobile operating system, which permits users to download and install applications from a wide variety of sources, has long been considered one of its greatest strengths. The new Marketplace, however, 
provides OTA (over-the-air) installation of only applications that have been subjected to "security and compatibility checks from Microsoft."
Microsoft says it performs "a rigorous certification and testing process before applications go to market," but also provides developers with ongoing feedback in the meantime. Like Apple's App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Windows Marketplace for Mobile hosts free applications for download as well as paid ones, the company says.
Microsoft also says Windows Marketplace for Mobile offers "a dedicated Business Center [right] for explicitly distributing and selling applications to businesses and business users through Windows Marketplace." The Business Center sells line-of-business applications from Microsoft partners such as Avanade, Formotus, Ilium Software, Pyxis Mobile and WebIS, the company says.
Further information
To read Todd Brix's blog posting about the upgrades to Windows Marketplace for Mobile, see the Windows Mobile Blog, here. Meanwhile, Windows Marketplace for Mobile may be accessed from a desktop PC, here.
