“Just days after the launch of Apple’s App Store, Microsoft has put up a website that attempts to compete. I say ‘attempts,’ because the new portal, which is powered by Silverlight, looks very rushed,” Emil Protalinski repots for Ars Technica.
“The site, dubbed ‘Windows Mobile Applications’ under the slogan ‘DO MORE,’ aims to promote most of the applications currently available for Windows Mobile (estimated to be something like 18,000),” Protalinski reports. “The problem is that Microsoft is trying a little too hard: it brought Mr. Flashy along for the ride, and left Mr. Usability behind.”
Protalinski reports, “Microsoft is not taking a cut of sales for every Windows Mobile application, it is merely trying to offer a single site that users can use to explore and find new software. The trouble is users aren’t going to be finding many applications without a search function. Instead, Microsoft has created a very-slow-moving carousel for looking through the applications.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ampar” for the heads up.]
Any day now, we expect a post-liposuction Ballmer to show up at some trade show dressed in jeans and a black mock turtleneck saying “Boom!” a lot.
Instead of “DO MORE” it should say “MORE DO-DO!”
Balmer just get the iPhone you know you want one
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How can this even be a product if it requires Silverlight?
But will anyone show up?
I think not!
I love the take, MDN!
Just curious. HOW DOES one load Windows mobile apps on to a phone? My little motorola has not internet connection. I think I can connect it to a computer but I have never seen anything about adding software???
In fact, I have NEVER seen ads for adding software and functionality to ANY PHONE, EVER. (except the iPhone, of course)
Is it me or is the entire industry in catch up mode???
Just a thought.
en
I tried do view the site but it says I need to download silverfish or limelight or something. So I clicked the download link and my company content filter blocked me.
Hmmmm… Why would an IT company block a Microsoft site?
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A site with 18,000 crapware titles with a heavy “me too” feel to it. The zune phone couldn’t be too far away then.
My first reaction is that all this is really kinda sad.
MDN: Do I detect some sarcasm in your headline?
LOL!
Just looked at the site and Protalinski was right. There is no search field! To view the apps you have scroll through them on a ridiculously slow cover-flow-ish display.
The site has a green color scheme. Clearly green with envy!
Where does Microsoft get their ideas from? It just boggles the mind!
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READ the article, its not a product, its just a website with all 16000 apps for winmobile in one place with no way to search through it.
Hey, don’t laugh to much at this pathetic attempt by Microshit. Wall street is loving it. Microdick is up $0.06 as of 20 minutes ago.
What a sad world that company in crackmond live in.
And if you live there, that is your choice so don’t get mad that I lumped you in.
“Why would an IT company block a Microsoft site?”
do you know what IT stands for? there is your answer….
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Apple reconsiders changing its corporate motto to reflect its new standards of quality and commitment:
Without Microsoft, we would never be any good.
Apple, we’re not as a bad as Microsoft.
Apple less crappy that Microsoft.
Apple, the worse Microsoft is, the better we are.
Why improve? We’ve got the Microsoft correction factor.
Apple, our success is defined by Microsoft.
Wow! Wow! Wow!
One question: will these work on my iPhone??
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The WOW continues!
@ wings2sky, @BSOD, and TFA:
Apple’s Forums (discussions.apple.com) no longer have a search function either. Rendering them…… oh yeah, COMPLETELY USELESS!
No Silverlight support for Safari on Windows. Guess I’ll never get to see it. Oh well.
@PC Apologist, I was wondering where the f**k the search field had gone, damn come on, put it back.
Another site I won’t be using with my dumb-as-a-rock phone. Oh, wait. Folks with not-nearly-so-dumb phones can’t use it either? Well, they can search through the site a few “apps” at a time. EN claims his phone doesn’t understand loading 3rd-party apps … maybe it isn’t as smart as he thought? As he was told?
Yes, it was a rush job. Yes, it will have a search function in a “little while”. Yes, we know who they are copying. And why. What we don’t know is why they didn’t start cobbling this together as soon as Apple announced their plan – many months ago. Duh!
Apple reconsiders changing its corporate motto to reflect its new standards of quality and commitment:
Microsoft, setting Apple’s benchmarks of quality and commitment for years.
Apple, a little fruity and just a little better than Microsoft.
I tried to access it and I was also asked to download Silverlight. Funny thing is that I already have Silverlight installed on this machine. So I think I’ll pass.
In the background, though, I did see something that looked like a search field. Maybe that’s been added since the original article.
Er, actually M$ has had the Windows Mobile Catalogue site for a while. MDN, you’re a bit lame acting like M$ is trying to play catch up with Apple here. Fanboyism
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Hoo boy. This site has turned into such a blind zealot convention. If any of you actually bothered to follow the link instead of swallowing MDN’s crappy “takes” you’d realize a number of things, chief among them that Microsoft’s site actually existed BEFORE the App Store (Ars Technica has updated the story to reflect the correction), and that there is in fact a search box, which the writer of the article apologized for missing, and which is in fact clearly visible if any of you actually took the time out to look at the page.
And you all have the nerve to call Windows users lemmings. Jesus. MDN’s forum used to be fun and interesting, but now it’s turned to shit, with the editors bent on drumming up hits with inflammatory editorializing. Just summarize the fucking stories, and leave your childish “takes” out of it. You people have become the Paul Thurrott and John Dvorak of the Mac community, a bunch of cynical click-whores acting like low-rent carnival barkers just to lure the troglodytes.