Today, in an email to Windows Phone 7 developers Microsoft has made known the categories and sub categories it plans to organise the Marketplace into. There will be 16 categories and 25 sub categories and a wide range of app types, as expected.
The full list of categories will be:
1. Books & Reference
- eReader
- Fiction
- Non-fiction
- Reference
2. Business
3. Entertainment
4. Finance
5. Games
- Action & Adventure
- Board & Classic
- Card & Casino
- Family
- Music
- Puzzle & Trivia
- Shooter
- Sports & Racing
- Strategy
- Xbox Companion
6. Health & Fitness
- Diet & Nutrition
- Fitness
- Health
7. Lifestyle
- Community
- Food & Dining
- Out & About
- Shopping
8. Music & Video
9. Navigation
10. News & Weather
11. Photo
12. Productivity
13. Social
14. Sports
15. Tools
16. Travel
- City Guides
- Language
- Planning
- Travel Tools
The only way for customers to put apps on Windows Phone 7 devices will be through the Marketplace. Microsoft will be approving apps before they appear in the Marketplace.
Microsoft is hoping that many developers are planning to release apps for Windows Phone 7 as the company is well aware that apps will make or break its new mobile operating system. Last week Microsoft announced that the final developer tools for Windows Phone 7 will be made available on September 16th and that so far the beta tools had been downloaded 300,000 times. Microsoft also said that they would begin accepting submissions to the Marketplace in early October.