Windows Store Launching With Windows 8 Public Beta In February 2012
Written by John Thompson on December 7, 2011 · Filed under Software
Developers (developers, developers!), take note! You have until February to get your Windows 8 application in a decent shape, because that’s when the Windows 8 App Store will launch with the public beta of Microsoft’s latest and greatest operating system.
The store adopts a similar revenue sharing model to existing app stores, with Microsoft taking a 30% cut of the revenue made on all new applications. The good news for high fliers is that once you’ve made $25,000 on the store, that cut will be reduced to 20%, meaning that you’ll take home 80% of the revenue made from your app.
The minimum price that you can charge for an application will be $1.49, which will probably equate to just over £1 in the UK after VAT. If you wanted to charge more for your app, you can sell for up to $999, although this price point will most probably be reserved for products such as Adobe’s Creative Suite.
It’s good to see that Microsoft is learning from the mistakes of its competitors, too. Unlike Apple’s App Store, the Windows Store will allow users to download free trials of applications before they commit to buy the full version. However, you won’t be able to get Metro apps from anywhere but the Windows Store, so consumers will be tied in to the model to a certain extent.
If you want to get in on the action, then a developer account will put you back $49. After that, it’s all plain sailing! Apart from the minor issue of, you know, actually building your application.
Source: The Verge
