SEATTLE - Clues from a Microsoft job posting seeking a Senior Product Manager - Skymarket are pointing to a key job function inside the Mobile Communications Services team to drive the launch of a v1 marketplace service for Windows Mobile. It looks like Microsoft is desperately seeking a qualified Sky Captain to pilot their Windows Mobile App Store-like world of tomorrow.
Apple was the first to launch a wildly popular haven for developers with it's App Store, a one-stop-shop for downloading unique iPhone and iPod touch applications. If imitation is the best form of flattery, then Microsoft is obviously tripping over itself paying proper homage to Apple's innovation with their own App Store simulation. (lame alert!)
Google quickly played follow the leader by unveiling its own Android "app-store" called Android Market. A name that was in critical need of a re-invent seconds after it hit the press, sounding more like a venue in Blade Runner for purchasing slightly used replicants.
It appears now, that Microsoft is not so secretly planning an "app store" forgery of its very own code named, Skymarket to roll out in 2009 with the release of its Windows Mobile 7 platform. A glaringly obvious combination of the word 'market' lifted from Google's android swap meet concept and 'sky' possibly taken from the science fiction film "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow". That pick has too much flair to fit the Microsoft DNA. It's most likely a name they hijacked from that overpriced airline catalog called SkyMall. I'm just speculating here.
Some ass clown hinted that Luke Skywalker may have been the inspiration for the word sky, but that would imply legendary cool factor which is not possible in the case of Microsoft. So Skymarket is the codename for now until some Microsoftie eyeballs a company with a cooler name, convinces Ballmer to buy it, then shuts it down and assimilates the name into it's collective. Stranger things have happened.
[via ComputerWorld] [Sky Market Job Posting]
No, no you've missed the obvious. SkyNet. I always knew the borg would be responsible for the doom of mankind.
Posted by: Dizzle | September 01, 2008 at 01:55 PM
SkyNet. Nice one Dizzle! Very noish...
Skynet is a fictional, computer-based military defense system that acts as the primary antagonist in the Terminator series of films and games. A fictional example of artificial intelligence that turns on its creators.
Sounds like a description of a future version of Vista or even Zune.
Posted by: iPhone Savior | September 01, 2008 at 02:18 PM