Microsoft has posted some more details about the upcoming Windows 8 Store today on their MSDN Blog, and the store would be having a 7-day free trial of paid apps that are available on the Store and also, the company would take lower pay-cuts for established developers.
Microsoft is definitely pushing its boundaries to get the Windows 8 to the hands of the customers and they’ve already started teasing about the upcoming Windows 8 Camps in India, of which Chennai would get the taste of it first. And today, Microsoft has detailed some of the features that the Windows 8 Store would be receiving when the marketplace launched later this October. We’ve furnished some of the most essential features that you need to know as an end-user when the store launches.
Free 7-Day Trail for Paid Apps
This is the first feature that the company has talked about. They are bringing in the most wanted feature that many users have been wanting from other such online app stores, the trial period for paid apps. Microsoft would now be providing free versions of the apps for Free for 7 days from the date of purchase. This feature would bring in a lot of interest for the end-user when the store launches.
Paid Apps starts from $1.49 (Yes! Not $0.99)
Yes! The Microsoft Store is not like how the Apple Store works, obviously. But still, the pricing could have been the same. Apple actually started off this low $0.99 pricing range for their apps on the Store, and people are still in that circle, where they expect the apps to be as low as $0.99. But Microsoft has priced the minimum amount of a paid app to be $1.49. The maximum amount that an app can have can shoot upto $999.99. Do you really like this? I don’t think I like this price range!
Price Cuts between 20 to 30 Percent
With Microsoft Windows 8 Store, the company would be taking a price cut of 20 to 30 percent, depending on the developer, which I personally think should be unified. But when the app reaches a level of $25,000 sales mark, the company would take a price cut of just 20% instead of the regular 30% which they would take until the app reaches the limit.
No restrictions to sell apps off the Windows 8 Store
If you are a developer, and if you want to sell your app off the store, you’re free to do so with Windows 8 Store. The Metro style apps are the ones which would be present in the store, and the developers can now sell their apps from more than one channel. This is highly encouraging to the developers, and I think Apple needs to learn this from Microsoft, which I think they’d not do!
I think Microsoft is highly trying to encourage the developers in building their apps and selling them on the Windows 8 Store. But the minimum pricing for the paid apps could still be reduced to a dollar instead of the current $1.49!
Source: MSDN