Similar to Apple’s Mac App Store in OS X, the Windows Store will be integrated into Windows 8. With just a few taps, you will be able to buy touch-friendly, Metro-style applications built for the new OS, including apps for productivity, photos, entertainment, social networking, and of course, games.
The company didn’t detail how the payment system would work or say whether the Windows Store would launch at the same time as Windows 8. But the company did provide a sneak peek at a few other details about how Microsoft hopes you will buy apps using Windows 8.
Keep in mind that all of Microsoft’s decisions are subject to change and that some of what you see below may be overhauled or subtly different when the Windows Store finally launches.
Metro Style
The lists and featured apps are each represented by a touch-friendly tile that takes you to the purchase page for each app. You can also tap the section title for each part of the Windows Store to see an entire listing of apps available for that category.
Drilling down into the Windows Store’s sections, you will see that every app for sale is represented by a tile showing the app’s name and price. You can sort apps by free, free and trial, and paid.
Trial Periods
Certified Apps
The company didn’t go into great detail about this, but Microsoft will have a certification process for Windows Store apps just as it does for Windows Phone 7 mobile apps. This will help reduce malicious apps getting into the store and ensure Windows 8 apps meet a basic set of benchmarks for quality and usability.
Not Just Windows 8 Apps
During the demo, the company showed the Windows Store listing for popular finance program Quicken, including a link to the Quicken website to purchase the product. Microsoft said it doesn’t want to require established programs to rewrite their licensing models and payment systems just to fit into Microsoft’s new Windows store–a comment clearly aimed at Apple’s Mac App Store. Instead, it will provide what is basically a free listings service for non-Metro apps.
“We love the ecosystem that’s around Windows applications,” said Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft’s president of Windows and Windows Live. “And we want to make sure that it [the old Windows ecosystem] blossoms in this world as well.”
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