Microsoft retracts their own Windows Phone WebApps

Microsoft has retracted multiple Windows Phone WebApps developed by themselves due to them being illegal and copyright violating.

Windows Phone Store has a category known as WebApps. This category is filled with apps that more or less are only dummy apps of well known brands that redirects the users to a homepage of choice. The idea here is to expose brands to customers, while the value such WebApps offers is rather limited. 

Since the release of Windows Phone Store, Microsoft has created multiple WebApps for a large number of established and well known brands and companies. However, now, Microsoft has retracted many of their own WebApps due to copyright infringements caused by the use of logos and trade-marked names, including the Atari, Cars.com and Southwest Airlines WebApps. 

It is interesting to note that Apple upon its initial release of the iTunes App Store, also used a similar strategy and offered apps that were only a shell directing the users to certain web pages, however, Apple had made an agreement with the companies prior to releasing their own apps. Microsoft apparently still has a lot to learn. They are no longer the God-company they once where who could do anything they wanted and they are having difficulties adapting to the more harsh and realistic environment. In any cas, Microsoft has not been given permission to use protected names and logos.

This is not the first time Microsoft runs into troubles with their own apps, for example, the well known YouTube for Windows Phone terms-of-use breach still plagues the Windows Phone users with no access to an official YouTube app.