According to a press release yesterday, Microsoft has finally driven a stake in the ground and will be delivering new phones with Windows Mobile 6.5, as well as the Windows MobileMarketplace on October 6th.  Windows Mobile 6.5 is the newest version of the Windows operating systems for smartphones and related devices that has been promised since very early this year.

If you take a look at what Microsoft is doing with this launch, it is pretty aggressive.  In North America alone, it will be released on the 3 largest carriers in the US, along with about half a dozen device manufacturers.  Pretty impressive, and definitely a non-trivial undertaking.  But probably the most interesting thing coming in the announcement is the launch of the new Windows Mobile Marketplace.

It’s hard to realize that with almost 65,000 titles online today, Apple just launched the App Store a year ago July.  That’s right.  It’s only been a year, and now all new devices are being judged as to whether or not they have a good app store.  One of the few criticisms I continually read about the Palm Pre is that there are very few applications for it.  I say that not to throw rocks at Palm, but to illustrate how much the market now demands applications for smart phones.

What makes Windows Mobile Marketplace so interesting is that Microsoft has a ready made set of applications for Windows Mobile devices already.  Estimates put the number of Windows Mobile applications at about 20,000.  More interesting is the fact many of these applications run on more rugged devices from Intermec and Symbol.  By definition many of the applications are business oriented vs. consumer oriented.  The App Store is extremely consumer oriented.  It will be interesting to see how Microsoft’s entry into the environment changes things.  I think they may have enough critical mass to swing the pendulum at least somewhat toward business applications.