In what looks like a big move for Microsoft, they have finally launched their Zune Marketplace in India, opening a potentially huge market to Windows Phone.
Windows Phone Sauce (who we are gathering are based in India) have been able to confirm that the Marketplace is live and kicking, accepting payments in Rupees (see screenshot above). Microsoft themselves have not made any official announcement, so this still may be a soft launch for the marketplace as they test the waters, so to speak.
Either way, this is a good sign as this may be the beginning of Microsoft's larger push into regions not previously covered by Windows Phone. Currently, the HTC HD7 and Dell Venue Pro are being sold in India, even though MS didn't officially offer any support there, until today that is.
Source: Windows Phone Sauce
Reader comments
Zune/Windows Phone Marketplace launches in India
even india? How many Malaysians are working in Microsoft,Google,Apple,Oracle,IBM and other leading companies? Indians are the key players in most of the technology innovations.And Europe..right...very civilized...keep dreaming..India is growing fast and it will become one of the super powers in few years and you would just be watching it.
"Indians are the key players in most of the technology innovations", where did you get those facts from..? Europe still holds the expertise in all the technology and research fields, while India, China etc are used for over-sea production due to the low wages. India have a lot of brain power combined, and a lot of educated people nowadays, but if you read a book about the subject - Europe is still where the innovation expertise is at (except for when national asian companies produce their own stuff). That's part of why the headquarters never are in the Asian part of the world, but instead the manufacturing.And the thing about India becoming one of the super powers in the world is still in discussion. You have lots of people but Very low living standards, high unemployment rate and VERY high percentage of extremely poor people - plus a very debatable social and justice system. You have a lot of catching up to do if you want to become something more than just a nuclear firepower nation with an excess of workers.I'm not dissing anyone, but you got to chill out. Being over the top patriotic just don't fly. And you're still dependent on the rest of the world providing you with over-sea job opportunities, so don't be dissing them. As Europe is equally dependent on you doing work at lower wages (didn't have to be that way but apparently companies still love to cut costs).You know, when the economy is on the rise - and the employment wages rise - the western world will look at new corners of the world to exploit (sadly), leaving India for its own domestic market. The next exploitable part of the world is Africa for now, having also that lucrative total excess of workers, and it's now too being said to soon be on the rise. In direct competition with You and China :-) Think about it, your "on the rise" countries will have to battle it out on the open market, pushing the wages down to attract companies. So it'll probably take some time getting around. But I guess you have a good foundation. But be also aware of Saudi Arabia trying to lure all the worlds IT companies onto their map, throwing billions of $ around, building the new Asian IT Mecca :-) How many outsourced call-centers was it you had now again? :-) Is that where the technology innovations flourish..? :-P Heh, no, just kidding. Peace!
Damn so many racist people on here! Calm down! Anyways my question was is this just the Marketplace, or do they get the Zune Music Marketplace with Zune **** too? Still waiting for that in Canada.
Agreed. Disappointed in some of the WPCentral readership today. Kinda wish they'd go away...
really Zune "Pa.......ss" actually censored.. :|
It's a mistake, being worked on.
India is the second largest country on earth and a country where Microsoft has a large presence. It doesn't take too much business sense to determine it needs to be near the top of the list for rolling out more of the WP7/Zune services.
Congrats India... gonna enjoy your WP7 to the max... as Malaysian... i still need another long long wait... It's very sad, the way they manage everything... it's like half-cooked work...
Tell me about it, what's more embarrassing is that SG gets all this stuff before us. Heck, I can't even play on Live without faking a SG address...