Back in February, Microsoft unveiled their answer to Apple’s App Store appropriately named Windows Marketplace. Months have since passed and yet there still wasn’t a solid release window.

Luckily, Microsoft has today taken to the time to announce that the service will officially go live for handsets running Windows Mobile 6.0, 6.1 and 6.5 later this year. Furthermore, the company has also announced that they will begin accepting application submissions on July 27th.

Microsoft may be a late comer to the game with Apple, Google and Palm all launching their app services but considering there are ridiculous numbers of handsets running Windows Mobile, Windows Marketplace is sure to be a hit.

via EngadgetMobile