App stores are the only way smartphones are able to sell software these days, and although Microsoft's Windows Marketplace has been well received the fact that it was only accessible by WinMo 6.5 devices has limited its audience quite severely.

But just as Microsoft promised a bit of extra backward compatibility has now been added that opens the storefront up to 6.0 and 6.1 devices.

This one small adjustment immediately takes the user base to over 30 million Windows Mobile users, who now have access to the store's 800 applications.

Microsoft closed out its announcement by pointing out that around 90 per cent of the Windows Marketplace software now has compatibility with the older devices, and users can grab the store application from the Windows Mobile web page.