Skymarket apes Apple App Store

Redmond's biggest employer is evidently about to launch a competitor to Apple's eye-wateringly successful App Store.

A job advertisement on computerjobs.com suggests that the new services, to be called Skymarket, will be launched alongside Windows Mobile 7 in the very near future.

Not surprising when you consider that Apple's effort racked up US$30 million in sales in its first month.

Skymarket, which is also described in the advertisement as as 'Windows Mobile Maketplace' will almost certainly follow the Apple model of offering direct downloads of Microsoft and third party software.

Start date is 'ASAP' so it looks like the folks at Redmond might be in a hurry to fill the new post which, amongst other attributes, requires applicants to have ten years of marketing, product planning or product management skills (at least five of them in the mobile phone industry) and an MBA.

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