Microsoft launches app match portal, links consumers with developers

While Windows Phone 7 has generally impressed critics with its looks and UI, it's developers that will have a bigger impact on just what kind of splash the OS manages to make come launch.

Indeed, apps appear to be key to Microsoft, with the giant this week launching a new portal designed to link studios with the very consumers their software will have to tempt out this winter.

Almost acting as a directory, MobileAppMatch.com both lists apps currently available for the markeplace and provides developers with a means to test out any ideas they might have.

Firms are able to submit app prototypes or videos to the site, with users giving their feedback via comments and votes. Consumers themselves can even serve up ideas of their own if they so choose.

Meet the makers "If you're a developer building apps for Windows phone, you could spend months on a project only to find out the idea's taken, or wake up to a concept that was never fun, smart, or sexy enough to begin with," Microsoft explains on the site.

"We're bringing the people who build Windows Phone apps together with the people who seek them for personal use - to start conversations, exchange ideas, and see what develops.

"Your activity will help guide starter ideas from first blush to finished products available on Windows Marketplace."

Last month, corporate VP and director of Windows Phone program management Joe Belfiore revealed hundreds of studios are currently working on apps for the OS, adding its tools have already been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times.

[source: FierceDeveloper]