Phone users Windows are looking for and wanting to have popular Google apps on their phones, although Google itself doesn't seem willing to offer them on this platform, at least not yet.
For some developers, however, this turned out to be a new way to trick users and promote their own software, which, unlike official apps, wasn't free.
So, last week, several apps that went through the Windows Phone Store approval process, such as Google apps, were found to be, in fact, ., counterfeit software, and were removed from the site.
Apps like Hangouts, Google Voice, Google Search, Google+, Google Maps, Gmail, and more came from a developer account called Google, Inc (instead of Google Inc, as reported by TNW). Note the difference in the comma in the name.
Currently, Google only has one app available in the Windows Phone Store, its search software, and it offers it for free. The aforementioned fake apps, however, came with a price tag of $1.99 each.
Microsoft was notified of the issue and has already removed the software in question from the site, although it appears that various other fake apps are still available in the store. The company claims to have tight control over the approval of the apps that are uploaded. Let's hope, at least, that Microsoft will better control the apps and clean up its portal a little faster and more correctly. So that it doesn't become another Google Play Store.
