Windows Phone Store opens in new markets, adds new features

The Windows Phone team have announced on the official blog that the Windows Phone Store has expanded to cover 37 new locations around the world. With the newly added markets, the store is available in 112 worldwide, while the website is accessible in 191. The team has continued to work on adding more locations to the list since the platform launched back in 2010.

The new markets are: Angola, Armenia, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo (DRC), Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Pakistan, Paraguay, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

More store features

That's not the news over as the Windows Phone team has also been working on implementing new features. Shopping has become noticeably easier on the web store, thanks to more accurate search results, new categories, as well as the addition of Collections - handpicked guides to the Store's best apps and games.

As well as the above, the web store now sports universal search, which saves consumers time when searching for apps, how-to articles and more by combining search into one set of results. SD card support is available, which is useful for Windows Phones that contain a slot and when cellular or WiFi connectivity isn't strong enough for downloading content.

Windows Phone Store

It's still My Phone after all

The My Phone section of the website has been seen to as well. The app reinstallation feature has been improved, which comes in handy if a Windows Phone is lost or upgraded to a different device. It's simple to get the content loaded onto a device, so long as the same Microsoft Account is used. Be sure to remember that Windows Phone also performs a backup to save what apps were installed on the device.

To finish off the article, the team states 2013 will continue the trend of frequent updates and improvements. We're excited to see what's on the horizon.

Source: Windows Phone Blog

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.