Microsoft Working On Its Own App Store

CWmike writes "Microsoft is working on a software distribution scheme along the lines of Apple's iPhone App Store, CEO Steve Ballmer said yesterday at a developer's conference in Sydney, Australia. 'There's not much money being made, but the general concept of giving developers a way not only to get their code distributed, but to really get visibility for the code, is a good idea,' Ballmer said. Ballmer hinted that something similar would be coming soon from Microsoft. While he said Micrsoft was not ready to detail the works in progress, he said '... fear not, we're hard at work, and you'll see some of the benefits [of that] with some of the concepts, particularly Facebook's.'"

Comments

monkey see monkey do

[larry bagina]

yo ballmer, maybe you should shut the company down and return the money to your investors.

Re:monkey see monkey do

[jcr]

I wouldn't go quite that far, but he should shut down his unprofitable ego-trip ventures like the Zune and the Xbox.

MS's problem is that they're fixated on competition, not customers. They got into search because they thought they had to compete with Google. They got into online services in the first place because they thought they had to compete with AOL. Same with Zune and Apple.

-jcr

Re:monkey see monkey do

[cgenman]

Actually, that division is currently making money.

As a game developer, I'd hate to see MS shut down their Xbox division. They basically took some great developers, gave them a real budget, and said "do what you want." So far MS corporate has avoided messing with the console games division, keeping them from becoming another MS Bob.

On consoles, Microsoft is basically responsible for: Digital game sales, digital movie rentals, add-on downloads, HDD's on consoles, cross-title friends lists, and the general concept of a cross-title global experience. While they're also responsible for the most godawfully painful log-in/log-out scenarios of any console manufacturer, they did a lot of things right and really pushed Sony and Nintendo kicking and screaming into an online world.

Re:monkey see monkey do

[jcr]

Actually, that division is currently making money.

Only if you don't count the billions already pissed away. Xbox needs about twenty more HALO-scale hits before it breaks even.

-jcr

Re:monkey see monkey do

[lysergic.acid]

i actually think some of the Zune's WiFi features are pretty innovative. being able to share music/photos/images directly with other wireless devices is definitely a neat feature (though it'd be neater if more devices supported it). likewise with by able to broadcast a wireless profile to indicate what you're listening to.

frankly, i think the major PMP manufacturers should get together and create a standardized protocol for sharing files across portable media players. Microsoft kinda ruined a great concept by crippling it with DRM. they also missed a great opportunity by not publishing their protocol as an open standard. with the iPod still lacking WiFi capabilities, if Microsoft had made wireless file sharing a popular open standard by working with companies like Sony, Creative, Archos and even SmartPhone manufacturers, they could have made it a huge selling point over the iPod. but the Zune by itself isn't popular enough to make their file sharing feature anything more than a passing novelty. the whole "welcome to the social" campaign is kinda silly when you're the only one in the social.

however, i still look forward to the day when these features become standard on all portable media devices. it'd be cool to sit down on a train and see that there's a person across the room that likes the same music/movies/tv shows/games as you do and be able to swap music/videos/frags/etc. with them.

Re:monkey see monkey do

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Right, but those billions have already been pissed away. Shutting down what is now a profitable division because in the past it lost money is silly.

Re:monkey see monkey do

[jcr]

Shutting down what is now a profitable division because in the past it lost money is silly.

Only if it's more profitable than other things MS could be doing with the capital they have tied up in it.

-jcr

Re:monkey see monkey do

[EveLibertine]

So you'd have them piss away more billions on a potentially unprofitable division, incurring years of loss for a chance to make a profit instead of having done exactly that, except they've finally gotten through to the profitable era of the division? You wouldn't happen to work for WaMu or something, would you?

Re:monkey see monkey do

[jcr]

And as to "paying dividends", where exactly do you think the money to pay dividends comes from? I'll tell you where it comes from, profitable divisions, that's where.

MS Office and Windows are profitable divisions. The revenues they generate should be paid out as dividends, not spent on ego trips like the Xbox. Ballmer has wasted billions of his shareholders' money on lines of business that will never break even. Going cash-flow positive for a year or so doesn't make it profitable, it makes it potentially profitable if and only if that positive cash flow persists until the investment is recouped. As I mentioned above, MS needs twenty Halo-sized hits to get Xbox out of the red.

In the meantime, it distracts the company from addressing the fundamental flaws in their core business. Longhorn failed to ship. Vista was a two-year rush job that landed in the market with a muffled thud. They've got nothing in the pipeline to make Windows 7 any more interesting to customers than XP was. Apple and the Linux vendors are eroding their market share. These are all symptoms of Microsoft's management having a bad case of "Oooh! Shiny!", and wasting their time, money and attention on ego trips.

What you'll find after thinking about this for more than 10 seconds

Ah, there we go. If you don't know what you're talking about, then go for the ad hominem. Very classy.

-jcr

Break out the copy machines...

[Rainbird98]

This company is pathetic. Don't they every ever come up with an original idea?

No supprise here

[bobwrit]

Microsoft has copied Apple's ideas ever sence the apple II in 1978. Or GUI's. Or the mouse. Or the Ipod.... Not news, just move along people.

Re:No supprise here

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering that Apple didn't invent any of the things you listed either, I don't see what your point is.

Re:No supprise here

[Concerned Onlooker]

No, but Apple legally licensed/bought the tech from PARC. Microsoft simply copied them after they saw how successful it was.

Whether or not Apple did invent these things it has been a fairly consistent paradigm that Apple (or Google, or whoever) comes up with something and makes it successful and then Microsoft tries to get in on the action. I'm sure their app store will do fine. At least as fine as the Zune....

Re:No supprise here

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but Apple legally licensed/bought the tech from PARC. Microsoft simply copied them after they saw how successful it was.

Whether or not Apple did invent these things it has been a fairly consistent paradigm that Apple (or Google, or whoever) comes up with something and makes it successful and then Microsoft tries to get in on the action.

On the other hand it took Apple few decades to put second button and wheel (ok.. "orb") on their mouse and they managed to get it wrong still.

are MS Windows programs hard to find?

[fermion]

I am not sure what the motivation here. When I go to a store, I see MS Windows programs everywhere. When I go to sourceforge, I see plenty of free MS Windows programs. If people want to pay a small fee for a program, I see that too. I just paid a small free for an utility the other day. I do not see a dearth of opportunities to purchase a MS Windows program.

So what is the motivation here. Apple has it's store to control content. I don't think MS wants to do that. Google has it's store to insure that content is available, provide more pages to host ads, and eventually make a little money on the side, when they begin charging, something I thought they were already doing, but I forgot about their always freaky business model. MS business models are always very straight forward.

So as best I can figure this is a case where someone else it making a bit of money in the computer business, MS is not getting it's cut, which is driving MS crazy. So they open a store, even though they have no experience in it and will not pay anyone who has experience, and then use their partnership arrangements to make others use it, maybe even building it into the next version os IE. Probably have to have to have and MSN account to use it as well.

The MS hate on Slashdot is hilarious

[Khuffie]

Linux community: "Windows sucks. They don't even have a decent app repository. In Linux I can find any program from one place!" Microsoft: "We're building an App Store" Linux community: "Zoinks! Theives! Scoundrels! Copycats!" Since when is it wrong for a company to see something it's competitor has done successfully, that was beneficial for both customers and developers, and then decide to do so for their own customers and developers? Seriously, how is this a bad thing that they're doing it? They've even acknowledged that their competitors had a good idea and that they've taken the concept from them. Jeez.

Re:Little understanding of a new model

[TheRaven64]

The apple App store model has huge problems (aka. you cannot run app X because we don't want you too) I don't think customers really want a repeat of that

I suspect you're wrong. Users want somewhere safe where they can get apps that do what they want and know that they won't get some malware. If that means that they may miss out on a few apps that Apple doesn't like then a lot of people will be willing to accept that.

The MS Windows shareware model is a mess.

[tjstork]

There's nothing in Microsoft land that equates to what Apple has with its application store. Windows shareware developers have to do shareware, first of all, which is pretty bad. In the Apple store, Apple has it set up that consumers have to pay first and then get the application, and that Apple approves the products and lathers its brand on things makes it great. In Windows, you have 2000 web sites all cheesily affiliated with a handful of players, no consistent payment collection mechanism, loads of cracks everywhere, viruses and malware diluting the idea of downloading programs from the internet, all just conspiring to make developing for Windows a very difficult proposition. A Microsoft Store, not just some subcontracted junk from Digital River, but a Microsoft Store fully and genuinely bundled right into damn OS (and incidentally Vista is a step in the right direction), would be a godsend.

Re:App store not making money? pfft

[neuromanc3r]

I like to bash MS/Ballmer as much as the next slashdotter, but I don't think that's true. He admits that it is a good idea. And his comments about "not much money being made" simply show the difference between his definition and your definition of "much money".

Re:Thats not the problem. Its the benefit

[CdBee]

Microsoft is subject to monopoly regulation, unlike Apple. It wouldn't be allowed to do that.

If they have a built-in download-and-install system in Windows, that could greatly improve Windows security as well as greatly benefiting free/OSS software on Windows. . It disadvantages Linux but helps both Microsoft (re: security), and the user...