As reported on alleyinsider, Microsoft is planning an iPhone-like App Store for their Windows Mobile phones dubbed “Skymarket”. It was only a matter of time before they announced this but yet again, MS is playing catch-up. Microsoft has been at the mobile OS for a while but hasn’t done much to innovate in that space. I mean this is good news for Windows Mobile users but I see a few challenges for them:

-Building something easy and simple to use interface

-A platform / framework that will work with the complex Windows Mobile industry and allow for synchronicity - in other words they don’t have an iTunes like synch software buddy sitting on the OS. ActiveSync is not the answer!

-Carried policies - around data plans and revenue sharing

-Other 3rd party app creators - i.e. Handango who have built a business around this

-Building a UI that will work across different WM configurations by screen size, keyboards - virtual vs. QWERTY, GPS, Wi-Fi, different data plans etc.

I don’t think it’s going to be easy for them to solve for all of the above but if they fail to do so then their app store is also going to fail.