Historically, you've only been able to buy Windows Phone applications from Zune or directly from your smartphone. However, that's all changed with the launch of Windows Phone Marketplace.

Windows Phone Marketplace enables you to buy applications from a web-browser. In-fact, you don't even need to browse from your actual smartphone in order to purchase applications.

You can login to the new Marketplace and use a credit-card linked to your Windows Live account to pay for your applications. You'll then be sent a link which you can use on your mobile to download the application you just bought.

The major benefit of this new service is the ability to quickly browse the application store on a larger screen (such as a PC monitor) making it that much easier and faster to find the applications you want. The site has a slick and clean interface with applications divided into groups for even easier searching.

This new service puts Windows applications on a level footing with Apple because you can browse through the App Store on your PC inside iTunes , while Android also has a similar service known as Android Market Web.

You can visit Windows Marketplace here.

With Windows Phone Mango now launching on new phones and updates being rolled out to older phones its an important time for the Windows Phone operating system and improvements like Windows Phone Marketplace will contribute to its long-term success.