Microsoft introduced its own application download repository with Windows 8 along with an SDK for developers to put together touch friendly applications around the formerly-Metro-No-Longer-Modern-Whatever-It-Is-Called-This-Month user interface. Dubbed the Windows Store, it would be the source of applications for Windows RT, Windows Phone, and Windows x86/64 alike.
Since the release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview in February 2012, users have been able to use the Windows Store application to search for and download both free and paid-for apps. The Windows Store is a curated marketplace with applications that must be certified for compatibility by Microsoft who takes a percentage of sale price (30% or less depending on number of downloads).
At the end of last year, Microsoft had approximately 142,000 apps listed in the Store. Further, the company is seeing as many as 4 million application downloads per day from the Store. The 4 million downloads per day number was uncovered by Alex Wilhelm at TechCrunch, and is a 134.6% increase over the downloads/day number from October 2013. The breakdown of application type is pre-dominately free with paid applications acconting for less than half of the daily downloads (which makes sense).
At the current download rate, Microsoft could push as many as 1.46 billion app downloads a year. All things considered, the Windows Store is still dwarfed in downloads, number of apps, and popularity by the iOS, Google, and Mac app stores, but it is showing a surprising amount of growth lately. Hopefully this rise in popularity will beget more popularity from the cycle of developers getting interested in the Store and users getting new applications. (Ideally, as the Windows Store userbase grows, developers will have increased incentive to program new, or port existing, apps to Metro which should further bring in new users and so on).
Have you used the Windows Store to find new Start Screen apps?
And all the naysayers got it
And all the naysayers got it wrong…Ballmer out…bold moves being made at Big Softie to change and listen to customers.
Now compared to apple, and
Now compared to apple, and the Android market, it is tiny so see where M$ really stands! It is very easy to take 1 and triple it to 3 and give a large percentage gain, 200% gain! All comparsions of one thing to itself, is not really a comparison of the true market. Big Softe, still only has a small share, and M$ is famously behind the curve again, but it does not control the mobile devices OS market, like it did with the PC market, and you see the real reason behind M$ pushing that terrable TIFKAM on to the PC desktop, trying to make full function PCs into Phones and tablets, to get as many users tied to its closed crAPP ecosystem! If M$ was really serious they would have a consumer OS division(for people that consume) and a enterprise/professional OS division(for people that produce), the professional version would just be windows 7 with the under the hood improvments(including system Image backups). This will not stop cities and governments from switching to Linux/Other options, or stop the EU and others from mandating Open Document Formats and interoperability with these Open Document Formats, and M$ better get its office software products working on more than 1 or 2 OSs! Its full Steam ahead with an Open OS for gaming too, and M$ will not be able to twist arms or dangle direct x carrots, to get users to use the M$ ecosystem.
So spin that spin masters, and terfers, the mobile market, and soon, the entire PC market will belong to no monopolies.
Started drinking early eh,
Started drinking early eh, Mr. Anonymous?
And I suppose the above is
And I suppose the above is the result of said ‘bold moves?’
Reller and Bates out…more
Reller and Bates out…more proof things are gonna get better.
The downloads are because of
The downloads are because of Flappy Birds
I really like the Hulu and
I really like the Hulu and Neflix apps on the Win8 store. Much better then using the browser versions. There are a handful of other apps that I like but those two are highly recommended with a Win8 desktop.