All About Windows Store On Windows 8

3 min. read

Published on December 6, 2011

published on December 6, 2011

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Today Microsoft started a new blog dedicated to Windows Store developers. In the first post of the blog, Ted Dworkin, Partner Program Manager for the Store detailed the Windows Store design, business model, app discovery, etc,.

Summary of his information on Windows Store:

Discovery and Design:

Windows Store provided a series of way-finding and promotion mechanisms—search, category browse, ranking lists, editorial curation — to help people find great apps. Windows Store in Metro Styled with no chrome that lets apps shine in the marketplace.
The Store app catalog will be indexed by search engines. We also support direct linking to app webpages.
There will web version of the app listing, which Microsoft will publish based on the same content provided for the Store app listing.
With just a line of markup, developers can promote their apps on Websites.

Reach and Internationalization:

There are number of market-specific catalogs, tailored for those customers, and a “rest of world” (ROW) catalog for all other markets.
Developers can choose where to publish their app.
The Windows Store will be available in 231 markets worldwide with support for both free and paid apps.

Enterprise Support:

Windows Store supports Enterprise deployment.
Enterprise can list their apps on Windows Store as well.
Organizations can deploy Metro Style apps in Windows 8 with out Windows Store too.
Enterprises can choose to limit access to the Windows Store catalog by their employees, or allow access but restrict certain apps.
Supports Group policy to permit Metro style app installations, as long as the apps are signed by trusted publishers and the machines are joined to the domain.

Business Model and Financial Terms:

Windows Store have full platform support for free apps, trials (both time-based and feature-based trials) and paid apps, including in-app purchase.
It shows developers sales analytics that will help them target customers more effectively.
Support for multiple ad networks for ad-based apps.
Supports third party transaction for subscription based and other business models.
Individual registration fee for Windows Store developers will be $49 USD ($99 USD for companies).
Windows Store will share 70% of the revenue generated from app sales.
Windows Store will share 80% of the revenue generated from app sales if your app sales crosses $25k mark.