Microsoft must have been jealous that BlackBerry added a “Coming Soon” page for their unaptly named BlackBerry App World because they’ve done the same thing, providing a coming soon page for Windows Marketplace for Mobile at the following address: http://client.marketplace.windowsmobile.com/

Apparently you’ll be able to:

• Discover free and premium apps
• Download instantly to your phone, and
• Shop securely from anywhere

Sounds a lot like every other app distribution platform out or coming out. But this one will require you to make purchases using your Windows Live ID. That reminds us a little of Android requiring users to shop the Android Market by using Google Checkout and requiring a GMail account to use their phone in the first place. But that’s not the only thing similar between Microsoft and Google’s app distribution models:

It isn’t THAT odd that Microsoft named their application system “Marketplace” even though Google’s is called “Market” and everyone else is going the name distribution route. But what IS rather peculiar is that they also knocked off Android’s Market icon with a blue shopping bag with the Windows logo on the front:

You be the judge… lame move by Microsoft or just such an obvious route to go that you can’t blame them?