Microsoft Shutting down Marketplace for Mobile & My Phone SVC

SH4YD33 · Jun 8, 2011

Just recieved an email:

Shut-down of Windows Marketplace for Mobile Web Site and My Phone Service Notification

June 8, 2011
Dear Windows Mobile 6.x customer:

Microsoft will be discontinuing the My Phone service for Windows Mobile 6.x. We will also be discontinuing the Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site. Because you may be affected, please review the details below:

Windows Marketplace for Mobile Web Site To Be Discontinued

The Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site at http://marketplace.windowsphone.com will no longer be available starting on July 15, 2011. After July 15, 2011, you will no longer be able to browse, buy or download applications for Windows Mobile 6.x phones via the Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site.

The Windows Marketplace for Mobile service will continue to be available on your phone, however. You will continue to be able to browse, buy and download applications for Windows Mobile 6.x on your phone.

My Phone To Be Discontinued

On August 7, 2011, the My Phone service will stop saving content from phones to the My Phone service. If you rely on the My Phone service to back-up the content on your Windows Mobile 6.x phone, you will be affected.

Starting on August 7, 2011, Microsoft will begin moving your My Phone content to Windows Live SkyDrive. SkyDrive is Microsoft's free online storage service that helps you access and share your files such as photos and Microsoft Office documents. Contacts, calendar entries, text messages and photos will be moved to SkyDrive for you. Once moved, you will be able to access this content by logging into SkyDrive using the Windows Live ID that you used to register for the My Phone service.

Other content types, including videos, music, documents and favorites will not be moved from My Phone to SkyDrive for you. If you want this content, you must save it from the My Phone service to your local PC.

On October 6, 2011, the My Phone web site at http://www.microsoft.com/myphone will no longer be available. On this date, you will no longer be able to log in to the My Phone service to access your content stored to the My Phone service. Microsoft will continue to store your My Phone content for one (1) year. Physical copies of your content can be shipped to you upon request until October 5, 2012.

Take Action

To learn more about the My Phone service shut-down, including information about your content moving to Windows Live SkyDrive and how to save other content to your local PC, please visit this web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2557520

Microsoft is committed to making this transition easy. In the meantime, we want to sincerely thank you for your use of Windows Mobile 6.x.

-The Windows Phone Team

DavidTiger · Jun 8, 2011

Got the same email a moment ago...

I never really used it that much but its pretty crappy that their shutting it down

xaccers · Jun 8, 2011

they're transferring it to a new system, not shutting it down.
You'll still be able to access marketplace, and you'll still be able to back up your contacts etc.

prabhat · Jun 8, 2011

If I see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2557520 I dont see any hint where similar service will be provided to backup contacts and SMS etc for WinMo 6.x.

I feel all users depended on Microsoft My Phone Service should now migrate to some other free service

Thanks.

goody1926 · Jun 8, 2011

My Phone-Locate lost phone

I wonder what happens to the Locate My Phone feature? I have the free service.

bobzero · Jun 8, 2011

Annoyed by this. Will resort to SPB backup.

Farmer Ted · Jun 8, 2011

I won't miss either of them. Marketplace is a joke, anyway, and there are much better solutions for backing up.

prabhat · Jun 8, 2011

Farmer Ted said:
I won't miss either of them. Marketplace is a joke, anyway, and there are much better solutions for backing up.

I agree for Marketplace

.
Can you suggest alternate for My Phone using online/cloud based solutions?

Thanks.

trueg · Jun 8, 2011

The Marketplace is a joke, but I heavily depend on the My Phone service.

I would be shocked if they created a Windows Mobile 6.x app for synchronizing with the new Windows Live Skydrive system.

TrueG

orb3000 · Jun 8, 2011

Same email here, well sad day for WM...
WP does not have a service like this at the time...

Badwolve1 · Jun 8, 2011

Really need to get a new device, I reckon this is the end of the last bit of support for Winmo

boxit · Jun 8, 2011

I don't really use the marketplace that much, but I do use the MyPhone service for backing up my contacts and SMS messages. It makes retrieving those items nice and quick when I'm updating the ROM or for some other reason. I also use google sync as I occasionally boot android on my HD2, so I can get access to the same contacts and calendar, but it doesn't sync all the texts.

I've had a look at the SkyDrive thing and from what they're saying, it looks like they'll migrate the stuff over to that from myphone, but I can't seem to find a way at the moment to sync your phone with it directly.

It seems like MS don't really want to support anything less than WP7, despite it only being out for around 9 months by the time the cut off date comes around and most people with smartphones are forced to take out 24 month contracts. As you can see, that means a whole load of people are going to be pissed off.

I've been a WM user for a long time and I would like to stick with it, but right now, it looks like MS have lost the battle. WP7 may have a better UI than 'droid or iOS, but there isn't the support for it when it comes to manufacturers and developers. The best WP7 phone out there has been out now for over half a year and the hardware inside it is virtually identical to a phone brought out a year previous to that. Why? Because that's what MS insisted the specs should be. I am seriously considering moving to a 'droid phone (possibly the Samsung Galaxy 2S when I can get it for a good enough price on my contract).

Seriously MS, sort yourselves out. You had a good product and you ballsed it up.

MauricioRPP · Jun 8, 2011

Farmer Ted, I would greatly appreciate if you could point to a free online service that does the same thing as MyPhone.

I agree that marketplace is really bad, but it aggregates a few apps that otherwise you would need to download the .cab and install al by yourself (like the Citrix client, a professional tool forgotten by iOS and Android - they have a client, but it is completely unable to open .ICA files because the OS is locked down).

anyway, the only way I can see this is that MS wants WM6.5 and 6.0 dead, like, NOW. And MyPhone was the ONLY feature of WM that did not exist in iOS and Android. Now apple launched a similar feature in iOS 5, and MS decides to shut down this feature.

well, I WAS waiting for Nokia to launch some WP7 phones to replace my aging HTC, but now I will not buy a fraking MS-branded phone not even if it is the last phone in the world. MS simply has zero respect for their user-base, and this is the proof.

edit: the saddest part of all this is that I am tied to a WM6.5 device only because of that Citrix client. when my HTC HD dies, I will have to buy a netbook to carry around and be able to connect to my work - because it's impossible for me to change the server configuration to work with the newer smartphone clients. (sorry for the rant here, but I'm really angry at MS).

Simon_WM · Jun 8, 2011

xaccers said:
they're transferring it to a new system, not shutting it down.
You'll still be able to access marketplace, and you'll still be able to back up your contacts etc.

What i want to know is, How are we going to use the skydrive, are they going to bring out a new application, to help configure the sky drive

Simon_WM · Jun 8, 2011

Badwolve1 said:
Really need to get a new device, I reckon this is the end of the last bit of support for Winmo

I Second this, I showed the e-mil, to my dad, and said i need to get a new deivce,

HD2 FTW =)

francisco55 · Jun 9, 2011

Marketplace? what is it?

There a lot of apps in other platforms. I don't like windows. I prefer android.

rwxer · Jun 9, 2011

As alternative you can try http://www.bloove.com It allows to backup your Windows Mobile phone (contacts and sms) or migrate data to any android phone.

Farmer Ted · Jun 9, 2011

MauricioRPP said:
Farmer Ted, I would greatly appreciate if you could point to a free online service that does the same thing as MyPhone.

Why does it have to be online? Hell, I just copy pim.vol to my sd card and call it good. I also use sk tools to back up my pim data to have an alternative. I'll copy the backups to a pc, so I have a failsafe. You could always upload the backups to some web service, but I guess I don't see the point. Doesn't windows live still backup contacts? I've done that as well, but have never used windows live or myphone to restore anything. I've just used it as a failsafe.

I don't really care about backing up texts; I just delete them whenever I flash, but if I wanted to save them I'd use sk tools to do it, and maybe use pimbackup as an alternate way to save them. Again, I'm not sure why a web service is needed to do it.

akshay2000 · Jun 9, 2011

Farmer Ted said:
Why does it have to be online? Hell, I just copy pim.vol to my sd card and call it good. I also use sk tools to back up my pim data to have an alternative. I'll copy the backups to a pc, so I have a failsafe. You could always upload the backups to some web service, but I guess I don't see the point. Doesn't windows live still backup contacts? I've done that as well, but have never used windows live or myphone to restore anything. I've just used it as a failsafe.

I don't really care about backing up texts; I just delete them whenever I flash, but if I wanted to save them I'd use sk tools to do it, and maybe use pimbackup as an alternate way to save them. Again, I'm not sure why a web service is needed to do it.

It has to be online, because we don't have time to copy pim.vol everyday! (Maybe, every few hours for few people.) We can't keep hitting those backup and restore buttons every now and then. We want everything to be seamless and requiring least possible human effort. We want polished ways. And we had it all. Now, we're habitual to it. We want it to be continued!

GSLEON3 · Jun 9, 2011

akshay2000 said:
It has to be online, because we don't have time to copy pim.vol everyday! (Maybe, every few hours for few people.) We can't keep hitting those backup and restore buttons every now and then. We want everything to be seamless and requiring least possible human effort. We want polished ways. And we had it all. Now, we're habitual to it. We want it to be continued!

Most WM users I know are business users. These are the COO & CEO of small to medium sized business, or their sales force. I always have a backup device in my suitcase because I have left devices in planes after long flights, once it fell out in a NYC taxi & more than once it has been broken or otherwise incapacitated.

Now I don't particularly care about text messages, but Contacts, Phone Location, Documents, Videos used for presentations, Calendar, Tasks, Browser Favorites & the Items on my SD Card are different stories. One of the reasons I stuck with WM was the MyPhone Service. Where else can you back up or restore all this data in one central place & then retrieve it with any WM device or computer via the website?

Yes, Live does some neat things!!! But So does My Phon. So, why not integrate the features that are improvements? Why keep starting over every single time you develop a similar technology. It would be like the Tire manufacturers every year saying "Okay, we have a new material that is great on dry & wet or icy roads, So should we look at revisiting the SQUARE tire? No, you take features that set you apart, features that build value & integrate them. That is how you develop a superior product.

Now a backup program just WILL NOT cut it for those situations that we mobile workforce members occasionally find ourselves in. Neither can you just swap out the PIM volume in many occasions.

MyPhone has saved me on two separate occasions, everyone I know that also uses WM & is in this type of business have told me similar stories. Just like you may not use OnStar every day, but you sure are gonna be happy it's there the day you are on a back road & turned over in a ditch, or find yourself in Minnesota during winter and slide thru that stop sign into the ditch with your kids in the back seat at 16 below zero.

Backup of swapping PIM is great if you are a student or if you sit at a desk 9 to 5, Monday thru Friday, but when I get a call & need to grab the next plane to Chicago with nothing but my device & the overnight carry-on bag I keep in my pickup, that dog just don't hunt.

Microsoft Shutting down Marketplace for Mobile & My Phone SVC

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