I've been reading through a thread on the PocketNow forums on what Microsoft could do on its upcoming online application store, SkyMarket. Many other manufacturers have their own online stores, such as Apple with App Store, Sony Ericsson with PlayNow portal, and Nokia with Downloads! and MOSH, although these are free.

According to Pony99CA, the thread creator, the good thing about the market would be obviously ease of getting useful applications, and software certification from malware.

It would be bad if the operating system developer limited application installation to the market, which would mean that consumers would have to jailbreak their devices for external applications. Having SkyMarket limited to Windows Mobile 7 would mean that quite a lot of Windows Mobile users wouldn't be allowed to have access to this large application collection, so we hope that Microsoft does not limit it.

OEM can also block the application and include their own, but as long as they don't fully restrict it, it won't be damaging to consumers. Microsoft will have to share revenue with these so that they agree to become partners, and the same goes to software companies.

In other words, SkyMarket should be like iPhone App Store, but allow free applications as well.

[via PocketNow]