Microsoft Stops Publishing Windows Phone Apps Amidst Glitch

Microsoft on Tuesday temporarily stopped publishing new apps to the Windows Phone Marketplace after discovering an issue with its new digital certificates.

Redmond said the glitch only affected phones that upgraded to from an earlier version of the OS, and apps that were published in the last few days.

"Some customers who try to download a new app may see an error message," Todd Brix, senior director for Windows Marketplace, wrote in a blog post. "If they're attempting to update an existing app, they might repeatedly be prompted to retry the update. We don't recommend that people uninstall these apps because they might not be able to download and use them again until we deploy our fix."

Brix did not have a hard date for when new apps would again be published in the marketplace, but said Microsoft had identified the problem and was working to fix it "as quickly as possible."

Microsoft created a new thread in its MSDN forums for developers who have questions about the delay.

In a separate blog post, Microsoft's Mazhar Mohammed said Microsoft estimated that the problem only affected a "small percentage" of the 100,000+ apps in the marketplace. But that includes the New York Times, WhatsApp, and Translator from Bing since they all recently issued new updates.

The snafu comes shortly after Microsoft . The updated site was born out of the retired App Hub developer portal. It offers tools for building, publishing, and managing apps running Windows Phones 7.5 or earlier, and includes new payment options, like PayPal.

For more, see , Microsoft's flagship Windows Phone device in the U.S., and the slideshow below.

Update: Microsoft of apps on Friday, Aug. 17.