One of the much talked about areas which has hurt the take up of Windows Phone both here in Australia and the US has been the widespread lack of knowledge by telco retail salespeople about the Windows Phone ecosystem. In-store lack of promotional material and information on Windows Phone hasn’t helped, as well as the lack of Mango Demo devices for both staff and potential customers to play with. This has been acknowledged by Microsoft and earlier this week saw the launch of a new official WP7 App, called the “Retail Insider” to try to address this. Modelled largely on the info-rich consumer Windows Phone Insider App, it appears to have initially only been released in the US marketplace, but signs are it will roll out to other markets at some stage.

Thanks to WPCentral for bringing this to WPDownUnder’s attention. With no GEN2 devices yet released in Australia, and only 1 of the 3 Telco’s offering a WP7 GEN1 handset for sale on their online site (1 handset only) – it can be seen why MS might delay bringing this App DownUnder.  Hopefully, this will change soon – and then this App will become a valuable tool for the Aussie carriers, their staff and re-sellers.

The App details can be found here in the US Marketplace:

Here’ some of the screenshots. Note on the settings page, the selection for Country and Carrier – giving hope to this App eventually being seen in Australia when we see some new handsets…

Back to you Carriers.  We need the new Gen2 handsets please.

Sheeds.