So, it’s great to see PocketGear promoting their App Store for Windows Mobile on their site. However, once you download the CAB file and install it you’ll find that it’s merely a shortcut which opens up Internet Explorer on your phone and points it to m.pocketgear.com. This will let you search through apps, buy them and install them direct on your device. We’ve seen things like this for some time, just without the link on the Programs screen. For example, if you’ve browsed to m.coolsmartphone.com over the past few years you will have seen the “Visit our software shop” link which takes you to a similar system shown here.
There’s already a lot of talk on the net about whether this is a “real” app store. Sure, the catalogue of games / apps / utilities isn’t stored on your phone and you will need an internet connection of some description. Sure, you’re browsing the “store” in Pocket Internet Explorer, so it’s just a web page really and you will need an internet connection to browse.
The question is though.. is there anything wrong with this approach? Have another look – it’s an icon on your phone which takes you to a page where you can select a game, buy it, download it and then play it. Isn’t that something Microsoft could’ve done years ago? If you really want to “pretty it up” it would be simple enough to hide the Internet Explorer interface and show the pages in a full-screen browser complete with the shop logo and nothing else. Sure, you’d need an internet connection, but how else are you going to download the game? The database of apps is stored online, so it’s always up-to-date, the prices and your download repository is safe, so.. why hasn’t an App Store button been on every Windows Mobile since .. ever?
Links – m.pocketgear.com – m.coolsmartphone.com
A Microsoft App Store – this could’ve been done years ago
February 11, 2009