It was announced at the 2009 Mobile World Congress, and began operation on 6 October 2009, featuring an initial 246 applications.

Students who were members of Microsoft's DreamSpark program could submit applications to the store for free, waiving the $99 USD fee.

Carriers had the ability to create a branded section of the store to market carrier-specific applications and services for their customers.

[6] Banned applications include: Rumors about the service began to surface around the internet in September 2008, whereas it was referred to as "Skymarket", and was to appear with the Windows Mobile 7 release.

[7] Rumors stemmed from an online job listing from Microsoft's website calling for a "Senior Product Manager".