Microsoft gets in the app game

Looks like Microsoft is taking its fight with Apple to the next level.

The company today began accepting app submissions from developers for its Windows Mobile Marketplace. Certification, it says, will take roughly 10 business days initially – and should an app be rejected, developers will get a detailed report explaining exactly why it was passed over.

Apple, of course, is the leader in user-generated apps, with over 71,000 different offerings.  Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do, but it does have a huge user base already installed in phones like the Samsung Blackjack and others.

“Our strategy for all of this is pretty straightforward; we want to create a global marketplace for Windows Phones where developers and users meet to sell and buy high quality and high value applications that make work easier and life more fulfilling,” said Microsoft on a company blog. “We’re creating a clear process and new opportunity for developers and ISVs to make money from their investment in innovation.”

Juniper Research predicts mobile application downloads will hit 20 billion by 2014, so Microsoft’s growing interest in the market is hardly a mystery. The interesting thing to watch will be how Windows Mobile apps will differ from those on the iPhone. Apart from the expected slew of games and productivity apps (like tip calculators or GPS offerings), will they veer more to the professional arena or the flatulence simulators that run amok at Apple?

More importantly, will Hollywood techies come up with apps that directly serve the film community?