Microsoft just announced that the Windows Store, the app store for the company’s upcoming Windows 8 release, is now open for app submissions from all developers, including individuals. This marks the final step in Microsoft’s program to bring the Windows Store to as many developers around the world as possible. Microsoft also announced that it is now ready for submissions in 82 additional markets, bringing the total number to 120.
Until now, the Windows Store was only open for users with company accounts, and developers needed a special kind of token to submit their apps. With today’s announcement, the floodgates are open for developers who want to get their apps into the Windows Store before its general availability later this year. As Antoine Leblond, Microsoft corporate vice president for Windows Web Services, told me last week, today’s announcement marks the “final step in really getting the store to where we want it to be.”
Microsoft also today announced that its paid Microsoft Developer Network program will now provide subscribers with free Windows Store subscriptions for submitting apps. DreamSpark, Microsoft’s program for students, and BizSpark, the company’s program for startups, feature the same offer. For all others, the registration fee is $49 for individuals and $99 for companies.
It’s worth noting that the Windows Store will feature both desktop and Metro-style apps. Desktop developers, however, won’t be able to sell their apps directly through the store. Instead, the Windows Store will feature desktop apps just like Metro apps, but to actually download and/or buy the application, users will be directed to the developer’s website.
Leblond also told me that his team has “been really, really focused on making sure the Windows Store is the best and greatest opportunity for developers,” which is a sentiment that echoes what I’ve heard from other Microsoft executives over the last few months as well. Leblond also stressed that developers especially appreciate the ability to write Metro apps (and yes, Leblond still used that term) in a wide variety of languages, including HTML5 and JavaScript. Microsoft’s financial terms for the store, he also stressed, are more favorable for developers who will receive the usual 70 percent for all sales until they reach $25,000. For sales over this limit, however, developers will get 80 percent. In Leblond’s view, Microsoft also offers the most “flexible, clear, and transparent policies for developers.”
Microsoft, of course, is highly interested in getting as many interesting apps as possible into the Windows Store before Windows 8 becomes widely available on October 26. As Microsoft told me today, Flurry Analytics, NASA, and Viddy have now been added to the list of companies that are building for Windows 8.
Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
Windows is a series of software operating systems produced by Microsoft. Windows was first introduced in 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces. Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world’s personal computer market, overtaking Mac OS, which had been previously introduced.
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