Efforts by Microsoft to expand its Windows Phone Marketplace and make it appealing to customers all around the world seem to be finally gaining steam. The number of regions which will have access to the Windows Phone Marketplace has increased by almost two fold over the last year with the company expanding into many new areas.
In the latest announcement by the company, it said that the total number of markets from which it would be accepting app submissions would now be increased to 63 by adding 23 new markets from around the world. The new regions which have been added are Europe – Iceland, Central and South America – Venezuela and Costa Rica, Asia – Vietnam, Thailand, Kazakhstan and China, Middle East – United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq and Bahrain, Eastern Europe – Bulgaria. The Windows Phone Marketplace is already available in most major countries.
The new markets will be added to the App Hub within the next two weeks by adding the new regions following which the developers will be able to expand existing apps into these markets or start submitting new apps for these new markets. The regions of UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Iraq, Indonesia, China and Bahrain have local norms or laws which require additional certification, Microsoft noted. The process of certification for apps submitted in these regions usually should be a week long process, the company added.
In other news, stock prices of the Canadian company Research in Motion have gone up by nearly 5 percent or 66 cents to now reach $14.11. What is surprising however is that this increase in stock value has not come on the back of any major announcements by the company. A member of BGC Partners, Collin Gillis has said that that the most likely cause of this spike may be speculation regarding the probable investment in the company by the Korean giant Samsung Electronics. Samsung is rumored to have shown interest in making a minority investment in the company ever since the announcement of the new operating system, BB10.
The Canadian government has made it clear that it will not be permitting a total buyout of the company by any foreign investors. However, Samsung has very little or close to nothing to gain from the minority stake in the company, Gillis said.
