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Microsoft Lays Out Money-Making Options For Windows Store Developers
tsamsoniw writes "With the release of Windows 8 just around the corner, Microsoft is eager to see its Windows Store well stocked with third-party, Metro-friendly apps. Hoping to get developers on board, the company has announced pricing structure, along with guidance and tools to help developers create trial versions of apps and set up lucrative in-app purchases."
Aspiring developers could hope to get the total sales from both potential metro users.
http://thetechblock.com/why-publishing-on-the-windows-phone-marketplace-is-like-walking-barefoot-on-broken-glass
Have fun with curated computing, developers. Work real hard and your app might be the next big hit! *snicker*
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Actually, I just got a Nexus 7 tablet. M$ is done for. Apple should be scared.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
A smaller tablet with a lower resolution and all the ipad benefits (ie no SD card) and it's all controlled by an advertiser that wants me to hand over all my personal data. Where do I sign up?
When open source developers built stuff that compiled natively and couldn't phone home?
Yeah, Pepperidge farm and I remember.
But then came "downloaders" (Look, Adobe Acrobat XYZ is only 1MB, never you mind the 90MB the 1MB "installer" is downloading in the background.)
And finally came "apps" and "ecosystems", a world in which instead of having a locally-hosted .src.tar.gz/installer/executable that the user can install for him or herself, it all goes away to "the cloud", because it's just a bunch of HTML5 running in a stripped-down web browser that dignifies itself by calling itself a "container".
I'm either getting old and becoming a luddite, or this industry has really taken a turn for the worse. Probably a little of both.
Create apps for the Apple and Android markets and forget the Microsoft market.
Lets break the cycle!
The only thing you really need to sign in for is to use the app store. You can always just use f-droid which is an app store hosting nothing but Free apps and you can download stuff from around the web. You could also go here and just use the Amazon app store. Don't forget too that the Nexus 7 can be bootloader unlocked with a single command so you can load whatever you want as long as you can find drivers.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
This appears, on the surface, like an emulation of the Apple model. The real question is how M$ will go about selecting the appropriateness of an app for its inclusion on the store. In other words, what is completely off the table (office knockoffs, Tetris copies, girly calendars, etc) ? I assume a few really high profile companies will be courted to, insuring that the "Where's my tiny angry zombie ninja with friends" apps are also on the Windows 8 app-store. Will there be favored software providers that trump smaller third party apps in the same space? Does the In App purchase mechanic eliminate/reduce the likelihood of patent troll attack?
Whereas you kept 100% revenues before, now you get to pay us 30% off the top AND rewrite your software, while pissing off your existing base (who still runs XP whenever they can).
What's not to like?
I'll fill them in:
1) Write for Android
2) Write for Apple
In any case if it's a game you're writing, bear in mind that adding support for Windows phone will cost significant extra development to support the as-yet-untested DirectX for Windows Phone, while increasing market coverage by, um, roughly 0%. OpenGL ES on the other hand covers both Android and Apple, plus can easily be ported to a number of consoles.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
I never really thought of Microsoft as being 'metro'.
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
Will we still be able to get it, or should we buy our copies now?
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
You still wouldn't be one of the cool kids though.
This is true.
They've pretty much copied the Apple's distribution method except for the minimum price: $1.49 instead of 99 cents. That's probably OK for Desktop apps, but I don't know if that will fly for touchscreen (Win RT) software; since Apple already set an expectation for such software to be priced lower.
to allow in app purchases FTFA "Of course Microsoft wants a piece of that pie, which is why the company is spotlighting its support for in-app purchases and attempting to make it easy for developers to embrace the functionality. "
So is that mean I can create a free app which I then redirect users to a %20 discount on my software and make 10% more than what MS would give me?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Yes, you'll be one of the leet kids.
Actually, I just got a Nexus 7 tablet. M$ is done for. Apple should be scared.
I don't think they have any reason to be worried just yet given the shoddy build quality, screen washout/ghosting, stuck pixels and poor support. Maybe one day, but certainly not now.
Software being a cheap app turns software into a fungible commodity. That is why the price, and thus margin, of software keeps going down. The problem is that most software will be cheap, throw-away products earning little for the developer. The only way to make decent money will be via lock-in, in-app purchase, or huge volume. Guess which of those options are easiest to implement.
Software as a commodity will result in lots of low quality choices that pop into existence, live for a short while, then stagnate and become cruft in the "ecosystem". Sure, there will be the rare app that takes off and becomes the next "Angry Birds" but even those will stagnate and die once market penetration gets high enough.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
It's all well and good Microsoft copying Apple's business model here, but until they copy Apple with regards to paying their third-party devs, iOS developers will always be happier than Windows7/mobile/WindowsStore devs.
- Here's how it works with Apple: you get to view daily stats for your sales, and you get paid for that month's sales at the end of the month. Boom!
- Here's how it works currently with Microsoft: you have no idea about sales until months and months have elapsed, and then they tell you you'll get paid some months even later than that.
...so tell me Microsoft, is this enough incentive to retain any of the 'developers developers developers' that you may attract, so that they will go on to develop more than a single product?
Meh.
Microsoft are at an all time low at the moment. They're a lumbering hippo in the IT world, surviving solely through their clout and might. Lots of other companies 'get it' and are far more agile. It'll be Zunes all the way down if they're not careful.
The former two offer stable economic models and a stable development platform, even though there is piracy. The last offers a shifting development platform, costs associated with developing on that platform that the others don't charge, and a questionable user base (people buying a smart phone usually want shiny new apps for their thing, and there are green field opportunities here, the windows pc market is very long, very established, and a lot of people don't want to pay yet more money for new stuff instead of using their old stuff, which worked just fine and did all they want.
Nah. Face it. 99.99% of apps are junk. In fact it might even be 99.999%.
The Apple App store proves this.
Confirming. This isn't my first tablet, but since last week, it's the first one I've been using everyday (and that trend is likely to continue). Google really made something special here---I doubt anyone was expecting them to get it this good on their first attempt.
"If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy