[gsma] Microsoft has set tongues wagging by banning VOIP-over-mobile networks apps from its forthcoming app store -- Windows Marketplace for Mobile. VOIP-over-mobile is one of 12 application types featured on Microsoft’s prohibited list. Also banned are apps “that sell, link to, or otherwise promote mobile voice plans” or “replace, remove or modify the default dialer, SMS, or MMS interface and apps.”
Most of the other prohibited apps seem designed to either protect users’ privacy or to prevent Windows Marketplace being used to provide alternatives to Microsoft’s own software and services.
The ban on apps that might compete with operators’ communications services is consistent with Microsoft’s longstanding strategy in the mobile market of allying with the mobile operators. Earlier this year, the software giant said that Windows Marketplace will enable consumers to buy apps through their operator’s billing system and that operators will be able to establish their own branded section within Windows Marketplace.
Given the big lead Apple has in the app store market, Microsoft certainly needs the mobile operators’ whole-hearted backing to help it catch up. But the level of support from developers could also be a key determinant of who wins the app store wars just as it was in the battle of the PC operating systems a couple of decades ago.
How will developers react to Microsoft’s list of prohibited apps and its overtly pro-operator stance? Will they welcome the clarity the list provides or be alienated by such a prescriptive approach?
Microsoft Bans VOIP-over-Mobile
see also MS list of prohibited apps
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