Report: Microsoft App Store future is "uncertain" at this point

Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet reports that Microsoft is in the process of reconsidering their strategy for distributing apps to Windows users.

Last year Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of the Windows Developer Platform Kevin Gallo said:

“The (Microsoft) Store is about commerce. It’s another channel for distribution,” but not the only way Windows 10 users will be able to get apps.

Now Foley reports Microsoft plans to shutter the Microsoft Store for Business and Microsoft Store for Education starting around the 30th June 2020.

This version of the Store allows companies to offer a curated list of apps to their Windows users, and also to upload custom private apps for only internal consumption.  Mary Jo reports the former actually received some use, but few companies coded the UWP apps needed for the later.

The change is part of a deemphasize on the Microsoft Store, with the Store icon expected to be unpinned by default from the taskbar in Windows 10 20H1. Mary Jo Foley notes that she expects the web version of the Store to remain, but that the desktop client’s future is “uncertain”.

Foley notes that Microsoft is still to come up with a”concerted strategy” for how they will deal with the app store, but that Microsoft is looking for ways to let consumers know which Windows apps are trusted and recommended by Microsoft and to find ways to help users discover, download and trust apps outside of the Microsoft Store.

In a statement on the issue, Microsoft said they “had nothing to share.”