Microsoft Names Mobile Apps Store Partners

Microsoft on Monday announced more than two dozen partners for its upcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile, including EA Mobile, Pandora, and Netflix.

Mobile apps from the companies will be available in the Windows app store when it debuts later this year. Other partners include AccuWeather.com, Associated Press, CNBC, Facebook, MySpace, Gameloft, Sling Media, and Zagat Survey. Users with Windows-based phones will be able to buy the apps with their credit cards or have the purchases posted to their mobile phone bills. Don't like what you bought? The Marketplace will offer the opportunity to return the app for a refund within 24 hours.

Developers will also be able to add updates to their apps for free.

"We know it's the experiences that mobile phones can offer to people that really matter," Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft, said in a statement. "The continued support from the world's top mobile operators, manufacturers and developers means you can choose the Windows phone, applications and experiences that are right for you."

"EA Mobile develops some of the world's most fun and advanced mobile gaming applications, and we understand the importance of product quality and consumer discovery as keys to success," said Adam Sussman, vice president of Worldwide Publishing for EA Mobile.

The app store will also focus on social networking. MySpace has announced support for Microsoft Windows Mobile and Microsoft Silverlight, and LG will pre-load the MySpace application on phones that are expected to be available in the second half of 2009.

In addition, Microsoft has created a new Facebook application, which will be available for free in April, that makes it easier for people to take video on their phone and upload it to Facebook.

Windows Live for Mobile will also be available in 25 languages as a free download starting April 2. It includes mobile versions of Hotmail, Messenger, Contacts, Live Spaces, Search, and a photo uploader. Users with Windows Mobile version 6 phones can download it Thursday at wl.windowsmobile.com.

The mobile version of Hotmail will also get a revamp, with an updated interface, navigation enhancements for touch-screen phones, the ability to view HTML within e-mail, and improved e-mail search functionality. The beta version will be available at m.mail.live.com.

But how does it look? Microsoft also announced that it will partner with the Design Museum London and the Council of Fashion Designers of America to develop custom themes for Windows-based phones. The first in a series of designers to create themes will be Isaac Mizrahi.

"Phones are just as much a fashion statement as the clothes you wear," Mizrahi said in a statement. "Cast aside your old black phone, and make this year about color and fun."

Later this year, Microsoft will also offer the Theme Generator, which lets Windows phone users set pictures from their PCs as background images that they can color and personalize via their navigation bar.