International Windows Phone 7 App Marketplace
-
Author:
n/a -
Send To:
Microsoft Corp.
-
Sponsored By:
-
More Info at:
Dear Microsoft,
Windows Phone 7 devices are now available in many countries around the world and we love them. Yet the Windows Phone App Marketplace is only available in 17 countries. Customers in other countries are stuck with smartphones with no access to any 3rd party apps unless they cheat and change their country/region in numerous places. And even then most of them cant buy paid apps with their perfectly valid credit cards based on the country they were issued.
There are no reasons given why theres no access to the marketplace in these other countries even though the phones are officially on sale by local mobile operators. One can only guess what those reasons are. The only remotely logical explanation is that you want to localize the marketplace into local languages and currencies for these regions before allowing access. This probably makes some sense in larger markets like Russia or China where the phones arent available yet (probably because OS is not localized into their languages). However the phones are available for purchase via official channels in many countries around the world (probably all countries in European Union) even though theres no localized user interface for these countries. Customers who make informed decision to buy a phone with English UI wouldnt mind that Marketplace is in English too. What they do mind is that their new shiny smartphone has less features than a regular phone.
We are not talking about Music & Video where we understand that not everything is in your hands. We are talking about your own app marketplace.
Not only this affects consumers, but developers loose a substantial amount of sales simply because they can only sell to customers in 17 countries for no apparent reason.
We would like to ask you to allow access to the international marketplace worldwide or, at the very least, for customers in all the countries were the phones are available, as soon as possible. In case there are objective reasons why this is not possible we would kindly ask you to inform the general public of the issues involved and a roadmap for the worldwide availability of the marketplace.
A phone with no access to 3rd party applications could hardly be called a smartphone. And, even though we love Windows Phone 7, we can hardly recommend it to our local peers at this point.
Windows Phone 7 devices are now available in many countries around the world and we love them. Yet the Windows Phone App Marketplace is only available in 17 countries. Customers in other countries are stuck with smartphones with no access to any 3rd party apps unless they cheat and change their country/region in numerous places. And even then most of them cant buy paid apps with their perfectly valid credit cards based on the country they were issued.
There are no reasons given why theres no access to the marketplace in these other countries even though the phones are officially on sale by local mobile operators. One can only guess what those reasons are. The only remotely logical explanation is that you want to localize the marketplace into local languages and currencies for these regions before allowing access. This probably makes some sense in larger markets like Russia or China where the phones arent available yet (probably because OS is not localized into their languages). However the phones are available for purchase via official channels in many countries around the world (probably all countries in European Union) even though theres no localized user interface for these countries. Customers who make informed decision to buy a phone with English UI wouldnt mind that Marketplace is in English too. What they do mind is that their new shiny smartphone has less features than a regular phone.
We are not talking about Music & Video where we understand that not everything is in your hands. We are talking about your own app marketplace.
Not only this affects consumers, but developers loose a substantial amount of sales simply because they can only sell to customers in 17 countries for no apparent reason.
We would like to ask you to allow access to the international marketplace worldwide or, at the very least, for customers in all the countries were the phones are available, as soon as possible. In case there are objective reasons why this is not possible we would kindly ask you to inform the general public of the issues involved and a roadmap for the worldwide availability of the marketplace.
A phone with no access to 3rd party applications could hardly be called a smartphone. And, even though we love Windows Phone 7, we can hardly recommend it to our local peers at this point.
1796 Signatures
-
Alan Mendelevich
- Country
- LT
-
Andre Abrantes
-
Juozas
- Country
- Lithuania
-
Balaji Damodaran
- Country
- India
-
Kelps Leite de Sousa
- Comments
- At least the free and trial apps should be available for anyone
- Country
- BR
-
DAMIAO H DOS SANTOS JUNIOR
- Country
- BR
-
Hrvoje Staniiж
- Country
- 385
-
Andrй Rocha
- Country
- Brazil
-
Federico Andres Lois
- Comments
- As an independent developer I see the other side of the coin too.
- Country
- Argentina
-
ed milan
-
Matthijs Hoekstra
- Country
- Netherlands
-
Martin Tully
- Country
- USA
-
Pradeep.V
- Country
- IN
-
Aaron C-T
- Country
- USA
-
Bart Lannoeye
- Country
- Belgium
-
DaMarico Fowler
-
Prabhu Kumar
- Comments
- None
- Country
- India
-
orb
-
Hrishi Dhruv
- Country
- USA
-
Jason hurdlow
- Comments
- Dev here, don't limit our sales
-
Sergey Aldoukhov
- Comments
- В
- Country
- USA
-
Abhinav
- Country
- India
-
Koen Pijnenburg
- Country
- Netherlands
-
Jonas Rais
- Country
- Czech Republic
-
Juan Lopez
-
Mark Monster
- Country
- The Netherlands
-
T. Balasubramanian
- Country
- India
-
Eugene Zharkov
- Country
- Ukraine
-
Justin Angel
- Comments
- I have 4 free apps on the marketplace. Microsoft, please share those with these eager potential customers.
- Country
- US
-
shawn martell
- Country
- USA
-
Dele Olowoyo
- Country
- United States
-
NAVEEN LAGADAPATI
-
jose
- Comments
- didnt know this was the case.. shocked and disapointed in MS
- Country
- Australia
-
Tyler Doerksen
- Country
- Canada
-
Bjarni Jensen
- Comments
- I am very tired of faking that I'm a Belgian
- Country
- Denmark
-
Geir-Tore Lindsve
-
Pawel Bojkowski
- Country
- Germany
-
Levente Mihбly
- Country
- Hungary
-
Leon Zandman
- Country
- The Netherlands
-
Tomб Uher
- Country
- Czech Republic
-
Ian Ku
- Comments
- I want to buy those fun apps like Monopoly
- Country
- Malaysia
-
Lubos Kratena
- Country
- Czech republic
-
Mark Allan
-
Tomas
-
Gergely Orosz
- Country
- GB
-
Morten Nielsen
-
kovacs kata
- Comments
- why do you have to copy stupid iphone
- Country
- HUNGARY
-
ryan alford
-
Wim Hoek
- Country
- the Netherlands
-
Dave Timmins
-
1796
Signatures! - View Signatures
- Sign Petition