microsoft app storeIn a social setting, Microsoft would not be the alpha male. Evidence? The tech giant is just now working to build an app store for its Windows Mobile platform — eight years after the product debuted, and nearly six months after Apple came up with the idea.

A job posted on Computerjob.com over the weekend advertises a “Skymarket senior product manager” position in Redmond, Washington. The listing says the position will “drive the launch of a v1 marketplace for Windows Mobile,” as Australia’s ITWire astutely observed Sunday.

Key responsibilities of the gig include helping define the “product offering, pricing, business model and policies that will make the Windows Mobile marketplace ‘the place to be’ for developers wishing to distribute and monetize their Windows Mobile applications.” The description also indicates the store will open to developers by this coming fall, to coincide with the release of Windows Mobile 7.

Am I the only one wondering why Microsoft would have possibly waited eight years to do this? For God’s sake, Google has its Android app store ready to roll right now, and there’s not even a single Android phone anywhere in sight yet.

Microsoft wants to make its app store “the place to be” for mobile application developers? Maybe it should try inventing a time machine and going back a few years. I mean, come on, guys…it’s a little late to work on building the modern mobile mecca. Your system was out a full seven years before the iPhone ever existed. All the celebrity spokespeople in the world can’t cover up that fact.