Windows 8 Store: with 99 Metro Apps, is it Behind Schedule?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2012/04/13/windows-8-store-with-99-metro-apps-is-it-behind-schedule/

by gspyrou • 14 years ago

26 18 14 years ago

awolf• 14 years ago

There's definitely a tipping point here. As a mobile developer with my own successful iPad apps I am watching this situation very closely. If it looks like WM8 will get traction then I will scramble to be one of the first 1000 or so developers to join Microsoft's ecosystem. However, if WM8 flops on tablets as badly as Android did (or: has so far) then I'll be glad I saved my energy.

rollypolly• 14 years ago

It's a chicken-or-the-egg problem. Microsoft should be contacting developers like you and offering cold hard cash for writing apps for their ecosystem.

Sony did that for certain Vita developers. Vita is still a disappointment in sales, but at least the devs don't feel burnt.

chrischen• 14 years ago

They contacted me, tried very hard to convince me. Then when a higher up person started talking and just as I was about to do it he tells me my app is probably not a good fit because they want people to specifically build Metro-style UIs that showcase it.

huggyface• 14 years ago

However, if WM8 flops on tablets as badly as Android did

Millions, upon millions, upon millions of tablets.

Seriously, while it looks pretty miserable compared to Apple's astonishing success, by historic metrics that is a huge userbase.

Zirro• 14 years ago

While bad news for Microsoft, it's hard not to think about how much exposure you as an app-developer would get in a store with only a hundred (or even a thousand) apps.

This may be incentive enough to have a lot of developers creating apps during the coming months (and ironically removing this incentive in the process).

malkia• 14 years ago

Just release the compiler for native code, and you would see a change.

CobaltHex• 14 years ago

this is windows 8 not windows phone 8 they're actually pushing native code rather heavily.

nigelsampson• 14 years ago

The Windows 8 store isn't even open for developer submission yet, seems a little early to compare size or quality.

I imagine once we see a Release Candidate and the store open it will be a different story, but still far too early.

Here's a post about the process of getting into the store in the future.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jaimer/archive/2012/04/19/wanted-gre...

nextparadigms• 14 years ago

Android has 32,000 apps for tablets? That's very nice if true (plus all the phone apps). I don't have a tablet, but I haven't heard of many updates on this, and I thought the situation for tablet apps was a lot worse.

So then Windows 8 for tablets will come way behind both Android and the iPad when it launches, just like it happened with WP7. Things don't look so good for Microsoft right now.

ja27• 14 years ago

Well, how many iPad apps were available on the iTunes store 6 months before the iPad was released?

It's not due to a lack of developers. Microsoft developer evangelists and MVPs are out on the road holding Windows 8 developer camps. We had 100 people at mine and it was "sold out" quickly. At our camp an evangelist said Microsoft was being /very/ picky about what they allowed in the store now. What's neat about Microsoft is that they said that if you think you have an app that is really ready for the store now, just get in touch with a developer evangelist and they'll help you out.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/edvangelist/archive/2012/03/28/windo...

outside1234• 14 years ago

is there really not a developer camp in Silicon Valley? help us help you!

vette982• 14 years ago

The Win8 Store isn't even open to all submissions at this point. Microsoft has only issued a handful of keys to selected developers, which allows them to submit apps. Without this key, you can't even make a developer account.

If you don't have a key, you can still develop Metro apps with VS 2011 Beta and test them using the Windows app certification utility that's included to see if the app would hypothetically pass.

I suppose this limits the growth of the Win8 Store at first, but I'm still surprised that there are only 99 apps given how many keys were issued. Also, I believe Microsoft is funding the development of apps by some popular app developers for iOS and Android.

KeyBoardG2• 14 years ago

These type of doom and gloom speculation articles are completely unnecessary. We're 5 months out and given that MS has stated that all WP8 apps will run on Win8, they're looking at ~100K apps in some form out of the gate.

contextfree• 14 years ago

They haven't even announced WP8 at all - at this point the only piece of official info on WP8 (or rather "the next major version of WP") is that it will run WP7.x apps. There have been no announcements of WP <-> W8 app compatibility.

KeyBoardG2• 14 years ago

Edit: I meant WP7. Thanks for pointing out my typo.

wcdolphin• 14 years ago

This seems to be a very poor comparison, remarkably so in fact. You are comparing a new ecosystem to that of one which required absolutely no change (and in fact, is still dominated by applications built/designed for an iPhone, but stretch miserably to work on iPads).

There are lots of legitimate challenges that Windows faces with this push, and lots of interesting interactions between these issues, but you fail to outline any of them.

To the many posters who have not yet written application for Windows 8, let me assure you that for the vast majority of applications which are currently available on Windows, building the application using the new SDK will not only be quicker, but also have much better products. You can also import almost all of your old codebase, the main changes are with respect to asynchronous IO, which creates a hugely different user experience, and of course poses difficulties to developers who are less accustomed.

@Patrick Moorhead, is there any logic behind your choice of 5K as the number of applications? It seems to have come out of the blue, and not from any analysis.

Excuse me if I seem critical, I guess coming from HackerNews I was expecting comments and insight.

huhtenberg• 14 years ago

100s of thousands of App Store items comprise largely of crap than appears to be there only to push the app counter where it needs to be for Apple's marketing purposes. If Microsoft is to release a two-click FartApp build wizard, I'm sure they'll manage to catch up quite quickly.

In other words, I have this faint sliver of hope that Microsoft will get their App Store right, in which case I'd gladly take a set of 99 decent apps over Apple's wide selection of abysmality.

shinratdr• 14 years ago

This is a pretty cynical and ridiculous view IMO. Why does it have to be some nefarious move on the part of Apple? Isn't a much more logical reason that iOS is attracting a lot of attention, and the vast majority of apps for any platform are bad or amateur?

Also, if the WP7 store is any indication it will be sparse and most apps will be of low quality. It's not a choice between vast and terrible and small and focused. iOS has plenty of great apps too.

Windows 8 Store: with 99 Metro Apps, is it Behind Schedule?

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