Microsoft mulls changing Windows Phone Marketplace terms to add more open-source licenses
As headlines rolled by over the past couple of days claiming Microsoft was banning free and open-source applications from its Windows Phone Marketplace, I sat back and waited.
Context & Ripple Effects
The story lands mid-cycle in Microsoft's Windows Phone push: back in March 2009 the company laid out its developer strategy for the next generation of Windows phones, and this month it has been courting developers hard — including unconfirmed reports that it paid billions to beat Google for the Nokia software deal. Into that charm offensive dropped a wave of headlines claiming the Windows Phone Marketplace terms barred free and open-source applications outright.
Microsoft has not confirmed any ban — the claim remains unconfirmed — but the company is now reported to be weighing changes to the Marketplace terms to accommodate more open-source licenses. For a platform trying to recruit a developer base against iOS and Android, the dispute over which licenses its store will carry became a public test of how open the 'open' in its ecosystem really is.
First-order effects
- If Microsoft widens the accepted license list, open-source developers currently blocked from distributing their apps through the Marketplace gain a legal path to Windows Phone users; if it does not, the rumored exclusion stands as policy and those developers ship elsewhere.
Second-order effects
- Rival storefronts' own license terms become an explicit recruiting argument: Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market can be measured against Microsoft's rules, turning fine print into competitive positioning in the fight for the same developer pool Microsoft needs for the Nokia partnership.
Third-order effects
- App-store gatekeepers deciding which software licenses may reach users sets up license terms as a recurring battleground of mobile distribution — platform owners effectively define what counts as distributable open source on phones, a structural question independent of any single vendor's decision.
The trend: Mobile app stores are emerging as license gatekeepers whose distribution terms, not just revenue splits, determine whether open-source software can reach smartphone users.