Windows Phone gets its own Cydia. Introducing Marketplace alternative 'Bazaar'.

Bazaar

The idea of an culling to the Windows Telephone Marketplace, one based on homebrew and freeware coordinating to the iOS Cydia, has been boot since Mean solar day ane (see this early attempt). Simply with the increasingly wide spread availability of official unlocking opportunities e.g. ChevronWP7 Labs, the notion has go more reasonable, mostly due to the increment number of users.

Over at XDA, 'BAZAAR' has launched as an early beta for those interested in taking it for a spin. The alternative Marketplace won't be bars to the strict, seemingly capricious rules of the official Marketplace (see Ffffound) only it as well won't be a oasis for cracked or pirated apps. Instead, this will be a source for developers to distribute their homebrew apps that Microsoft would not approve as well every bit standard freeware apps.

That'south the good news. Only here's the bad: y'all need to have a DFT, NextGen or Deepshining Custom ROM installed on your phone i.e. a ROM that supports XAP-installation by IE9 (yes, you can practise that in a custom ROM). That'southward a shame and quite a big limitation right now as going the custom ROM route cuts out a huge chunk of potential users, including all Gen two devices. Still, it's an initial framework and nosotros can hope that there will be a breakthrough where this will be allowed

The app itself merely allows browsing right now as they work on getting permissions for the repository. The developers are looking for user feedback from those with custom ROMs and will exist adding the following features in the time to come:

Creating an business relationship within Bazaar
Managing favorites applications listing and the ability to download and install them as a batch process (very useful later reset/flashing new ROM version)
Add ratings and comments for applications
Submit new applications via Bazaar web site
Online search in Bazaar applications repository
And many more than…

It is cool looking and we hope the start of something bigger. Perhaps Microsoft could land a hand to an unofficial Marketplace?

Source: XDA; Thanks, Carlos, for the tip!