Windows Phone Store opens in new markets, adds new features

By Rich Edmonds
last updated

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
Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds is 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 over on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

17 Comments
  • Is anyone else kind of amazed that windows phone wasn't already in the Dominican Republic
  • Waiting for the 620 to come out there to recommend.
  • I live in DR, and Windows Phone is selling OK, in particular the Lumia 610. The carriers started selling the phones like 4 months ago
  • Huh? Windows Phone already was availible in Malaysia since more than a year. Is this only for WP8?
  • Haha nice. Actually available in Armenie...awesome! 
     
  • Why, in Thailand, I still could see many apps (eg. PayPal, Tripadvisor etc.) in app store but cannot download them?
  • Windows Phone has been in my country (Ghana) since day one but no mention of Ghana....mehn!!!
  • That's a list of NEW markets not old ones
  • Great to see Zimbabwe there and other smaller countries...Well done Microsoft. Google and Apple to follow maybe.
  • can someone tell me if we can PURCHASE apps if we're in one of these countries? It lists Pakistan (my country) so I'm wondering if I can use my local CC to purchase apps. I can already do that on my iPhone
  • Its weird... I can see and download podcasts from my 920's marketplace. Am I alone on this?
  • Still after a month after getting my first wp ms hasn't been able to solve my c101a006 issue so that I can download some apps. I am also in a recently opened store region (Cyprus), so what's the point in opening them when users cannot benefit from it?!? Just to make a fancy announcement perhaps...
  • I've had that issue when updating some apps. I had to uninstall then reinstall them. Sometimes turning the phone off then on helps too.
  • This is due to Store updates I suppose, I had that error sometimes too but only for a few hours, nothing terrible ;)
  • The new store features, only for wp7 and new markets?
  • SD CARD AVAIVIBLE? Does that mean the 4gb HTC 8S can actually be good now? Woohoo
  • I submitted an App that was enabled for both Spanish-Mexico and Spanish-Spain (different resource files) but the Phone Store App Submission process only offered Spanish support.  No disctinction of one culture or the other. Still waiting to hear back from Microsoft on this.