What a surprise! What a surprise!! Are you surprised? Actually I am not. I was just pretending to be surprised. Typical, typical Microsoft. This is nothing new! We’ve seen it many times before. So why would I be surprised this time? Ok, I think I haven’t said the news yet. The news is that after seeing Apple’s booming success on iTune Store and Google’s recent announcements of it’s Android Market, Microsoft is planning to work on something similar. No surprise there. Microsoft couldn’t just sit around the corner and think “Shit! why didn’t we think of it before!” They had to do something about it. So Microsoft decided to get into the market and try and get a piece of the pie. And they’re working on a product called “Skymarket“. Fair enough. We’ve seen their “success” on Zune, their $300m Ad campaign (coming this month) to get more consumer awareness for their “new” operating system, Vista.

So, what’s the question here? I guess the question is, we can still see the mac computer behind every Microsoft product, we can still hear young Bill Gates praising Apple. It’s not our fault, Microsoft just couldn’t come out of that trend. So what can we do! I guess we can just sit and laugh at Microsoft’s CEO Mr. Ballmer’s funny attitude. Speaking of which, I just remembered Mr. Ballmer’s comment on the iPhone. He’s a funny guy with a bit of twist. Anyway, if you were interested in Microsoft’s recent copy-cat idea then may be you could join the party too. They’re looking for someone to help launch their application store, SkyMarket. According to ComputerWorld, Microsoft has been advertising for a Skymarket Senior Product Manager. Computer World has secured a copy of the Job Ad and according to that the key responsibilities are: 

  • “Definition of the product offering, pricing, business model and policies that will make the Windows Mobile marketplace “the place to be” for developers wishing to distribute and monetize their Windows Mobile application
  • Responsibility for the business model and key elements that will drive the optimal experience for developers and monetization of the service by Microsoft
  • Preparation and driving the cross group collaboration for the initial launch of the marketplace offering to the developer community this fall
  • Preparation and driving the cross group collaboration with stakeholders in the commercial launch of the marketplace service with the launch of WM 7
  • Define and mange the consumer, developer and mobile operator value proposition and supporting materials for use by PR, MCB’s developer outreach organization, and other teams across Microsoft
  • Working with multiple stakeholders (product team, product planning, developer outreach, business operations, legal and more) in definition on the process, policies and terms of use through which developers and consumers take part in the marketplace
  • Work closely with product planning on prioritization of consumer, developer, and mobile operator scenarios
  • Support business development on engagements with mobile operators and integration of the marketplace offering into broader Microsoft services offerings or discussions
  • Work closely with the Mobile Communication Business developer outreach organization
  • Management of KPI’s for the service post launch”

Interested? Bad luck. The job has already been pulled out by Microsoft. The SkyMarket may be released sometime in 2009. We don’t know and if you ask me, I am not interested at all. But for those who’re interested, I’d suggest to wait for another 5 years.

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