Digital locker
Encyclopedia
Windows Marketplace, was a Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 platform for the delivery of software electronically that worked with Windows Marketplace and was secured by use of Windows Live
Windows Live
Windows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft, part of their software plus services platform. A majority of these services are Web applications, accessible from a browser, but there are also client-side binary applications that require...

 ID. The digital locker platform was composed of four major components:
  1. Windows Marketplace catalog
  2. Multi merchant download cart
  3. Digital Locker Assistant (a client side application that facilitates the download of purchased applications)
  4. Digital Locker.


For consumers, the digital locker and Windows Marketplace could be used for purchasing and downloading third party software titles compatible with Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, and then using that purchased software on any computer the software license allows.

For software developers, the digital locker and Windows Marketplace could be a cost-effective channel for the distribution of their software titles.

A Windows Vista Ultimate Extra
Windows Ultimate Extras
Windows Ultimate Extras are optional features offered to users of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition. They are accessible with Windows Update. Ultimate Extras replace the market role of Microsoft Plus!, a product sold for prior consumer releases of Microsoft Windows...

, called Secure Online Key Backup allowed backing up EFS
Encrypting File System
The Encrypting File System on Microsoft Windows is a feature introduced in version 3.0 of NTFS that provides filesystem-level encryption...

 recovery certificates, as well as the BitLocker recovery password in the Digital Locker.

Windows Marketplace was only available for residents of the USA.

Discontinuation

On 14 November 2008, Microsoft announced that the Digital Locker will be shut down in 2009. Windows Marketplace will be drastically scaled back and people wishing to buy any Microsoft product will now have to go to the Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
The Microsoft Store consists of fourteen retail stores and an online shopping site, and is owned and operated by Microsoft, dealing in computers, computer software and consumer electronics...

, which will sell all items previously sold at Windows Marketplace.

On February 16, 2009 at the Mobile World Congress
Mobile World Congress
The GSMA Mobile World Congress is the combination of the world's largest exhibition for the mobile industry and a conference featuring prominent Chief Executives representing mobile operators, device manufacturers, technology providers, vendors and content owners from across the world...

, Microsoft announced Windows Marketplace for Mobile
Windows Marketplace for Mobile
Windows Marketplace for Mobile is a service by Microsoft for its Windows Mobile platform that allows users to browse and download applications that have been developed by third parties. The service was available for use directly on Windows Mobile 6.x devices and on personal computers...

 which will deploy a similar concept to Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is...

 devices.

A year after Microsoft introduced Windows Marketplace for Mobile, they announced their next generation mobile platform named Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...

. With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft completely revamped their mobile efforts and the Marketplace, introducing Windows Phone Marketplace
Windows Phone Marketplace
Windows Phone Marketplace is a service by Microsoft for its Windows Phone 7 platform that allows users to browse and download applications that have been developed by third-parties...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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