Microsoft is adding subscription pricing for apps in its Office Store, besides opening eight new store fronts.
Developers will be allowed to charge a monthly recurring fee for their applications which they can promote and distribute globally or within the 31 individual selectable markets where the Office Store is available.
The company said it was adding stores in Russia, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Brazil “starting this spring,” besides supporting Chinese, Russian, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese and Italian language apps.
“Developers will have an even greater choice between free, trial, paid and subscription versions of their apps, broadening their reach to entirely new users, customers and segments,” Microsoft said in a post.
Developers can submit updated or new apps to support subscription from this month. Starting in November, Office Store users will be able to purchase the subscription apps, though the new local language apps will be available to customers only in spring, Microsoft said.
Office users have already downloaded well over 1 million apps from the Office Store, Microsoft said.