Microsoft Corporation has announced strong industry support for Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Marketplace for Mobile along with applications for Windows phones.



Windows Marketplace for Mobile will open a venue for people to get the applications they want right on their phone. A number of companies that offer top-selling categories of mobile applications have agreed to be among the first to offer applications through Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

Windows Marketplace for Mobile will enable customers to purchase applications with a credit card or have charges appear directly on their phone bill. Customers will also be able to return an application after purchase within 24 hours for a full refund. Developers will have the facility to deliver updates to their applications for free throughout the application lifecycle. Access to a branded section of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile catalog will be given to mobile operators that partner with Microsoft (News - Alert). Through this catalog, operators will be able to market their own applications and services to their customer base.

Microsoft has entered into a partnership with the Design Museum London and Council of Fashion Designers of America. Microsoft will offer a variety of free designer themes to help people express their personal style on Windows phones through this partnership. The partnership will also provide a number of designers to create exclusive themes and wallpapers. Isaac Mizrahi, the first in the series of such designers states that he is looking forward to create fresh and funky ways for people to make their Windows phones a part of their personality.

The Theme Generator, which will be available later this year, is another means of personalizing a Windows phone. It will enable Windows phone users to select pictures from their PC to set as background images and also to choose colors to personalize the navigation bar, scroll bar and highlighted text.

Microsoft’s new Facebook (News - Alert) application for Windows phones will allow users to capture video on their phone and upload it to Facebook. This application will be available for free in April. Another application created for MySpace (News - Alert) will provide Windows phone customers real-time access to their global MySpace network.

Windows Live for Mobile will be available for free download this week for customers in 25 languages. It includes Microsoft’s mobile suite of Internet services such as Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Contacts. Microsoft will be releasing a beta version of Windows Live Hotmail which will be available through a mobile Web browser. The release contains features such as improved user interface, navigation enhancements for touch-screen devices and the ability to see full HTML pages within e-mail messages.