Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft was planning to launch an online marketplace, somewhat the opposite number of Apple Incorporated’s App Store, which will obviously go head-to-head with the latter if the company delivers.

Moreover, according to the Journal, Microsoft is also in the process of developing an enhanced version of its mobile operating system called Windows Mobile 6.5.

The tech giant, which has yet to offer a smartphone of its own but is apparently nowhere near doing so, despite rumors that have been running wild for a while, currently only makes the operating software for such gadgets and ranks third where worldwide market share is concerned, according to research firm IDC.

Ranking first is Symbian, powering Nokia smartphones, the company being followed by Research In Motion (RIM) with their BlackBerry mobile devices.

Currently, although Apple’s iPhone is the one that created the biggest buzz in terms of smartphones, IDC announced that the company only ranked fifth with regards to overall market share for 2008.

Nevertheless, since Apple rolled out the iPhone 3G last summer, the company has managed to triple its market share from 3 percent in 2007 to 9 percent last year, IDC further informed, while rival Microsoft only went up from 11 percent market share in 2007 to 12.3 percent in 2008.

Since Microsoft seems to be losing ground and unable to catch up with Apple’s growth, developing an online marketplace would be a very good move for the company, especially if the service would come into the same success as the App Store, from where thousands of free and fee-based applications have been downloaded ever since it went live back in the summer.