Tech enthusiast Long Zheng wrote about this in his blog today: “I’m beginning to question if Microsoft’s motivation to open a centralized app store for Windows Mobile is more so for profit rather than the growth of its application platform..I understand that in the perspective of a reviewer who has to qualify these applications, every new binary could be an entire rewrite of the application, but then on the other hand it could just be a simple typo correction. An expensive typo at that.” Once a developer hits five submissions, each update or new app costs $99 each.

Up until this point, carriers have played the role of gatekeeper and have been criticized for the bottleneck it has become. It can take months to a year of rigorous testing for a developer to get placement on the carrier’s deck. If handset makers are not careful, it could become a managerial nightmare for them, as well. They not only have to ensure the apps will work on their phones, but screen for viruses, pornography and copyrighted material. It’s impressive that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has been able to keep the approval process to around two weeks.

Microsoft confirmed to us that the $99 fee does include updates, and said “this process is to make sure that the end user experience is optimal, and that the device and network resources are not used in a malicious way. We believe that $99 is an acceptable cost of doing business, in order to gain access to a universe of millions of customers that are interested in purchasing your applications.” Said another way, it’s a simple way to keep Microsoft’s costs and liabilities down. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has headed in another direction with the Android Market, which is moderated by the community, and as a result, Google likely spends less resources on monitoring the storefront, but it also shows—the quality of apps are completely inconsistent. Nokia (NYSE: NOK), which is getting close to releasing the Ovi Store, has also taken a different approach. There’s been no mention of a fee to date, but it will require applications to submitted by a legal company, not an individual.