Microsoft drops Marketplace support for older Windows phones

All good (and bad) things eventually have to meet their fate and today some Windows Mobile and Phone marketplaces meet theirs. Those running on the ancient Windows Mobile platform will no longer have access to the official Marketplace starting from today. If you do happen to have a unmodified HTC HD2 laying around now would be the time to update applications – if it isn't too late already.

Of course, those applications which are already downloaded will be unaffected once the Marketplace shutdown has taken effect. Also, third party application stores will continue to work as normal. The shutdown comes about even though some analysts believe Windows Mobile outsold the more modern Windows Phone 7 platform for much of 2011.

That' not everything though, Windows Phone 7.5 is now required to access the Windows Phone marketplace. The 7.5 “Mango” update was released late last year and due to manufacturers and carriers getting their software updates sorted for once, all Windows Phone smartphones should already be on the Mango update. If not, you will start to see error messages when trying to access the Marketplace. If you're not sure what version you are running on your Windows Phone device refer to the FAQs.

KitGuru says: Dropping support for old (yet near extinct) code and focussing on upcoming updates, well done Microsoft. We wish Google and its Android supporters picked up on your mentalities.

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