Following the enormous success of the iPhone's App Store and last week's announcement of Google's Android Market, Microsoft now looks set to belatedly join the online mobile apps store party. This according to an open job description posted by the company itself that offers clues to a centralized software marketplace called “Skymarket.”

This comes as no surprise when you consider that Apple's effort racked up $30 million in sales in its first month. And while Windows Mobile has always offered vast support for third-party applications, there's no official one-stop shopping site to get them – though sites like Handango and PocketGear do offer an extensive library of titles for Windows-based and other mobile devices.

Skymarket will most likely follow the Apple model of offering direct downloads of Microsoft and third party software and is expected to debut alongside Windows Mobile 7 in late 2009.