Opinion: Why Microsoft’s Windows 8 App Store May Fail

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[citation][nom]aracheb[/nom]fuck. finally gruener write something without siding to apple..[/citation]
Not really. Not mentioning his favorite much, but sledging MS as often as possible accomplishes the same thing.
His 'article' is so full of misrepresentations of fact he should be ashamed.
 
[citation][nom]mattstone[/nom]Windows Phone market share has nothing to do with the interface. Every review of Windows Phone I've ever seen has spoken with high praise of the interface and people who have the phones say they get complements from strangers all the time. The point anyway was that Microsoft has no trouble attracting developers to it's platform even when there is limited market share, so Windows 8 which will have massive market share certainly won't have problems attracting developers to the platform.[/citation]
Its not even an issue with attracting devs. Its the morans in phone stores don't know squat about th ephones (and don't want to learn either) and will blindly recommend iPhones and androids even when they know damn well that a particular customer is going to be quickly lost in the needless complexity of android and doesn't care about being 'trendy' by getting a fruity phone.
 
I think the author missed out on one very important thing Microsoft has going for it. Kinect. Mattstone hinted at it and the author even mentions the X-box platform is underutilized. Word is out that Kinect, version 2, will be for PCs and have facial recognition as well as the ability to read lips. If this works as touted, Microsoft can trump touchscreens. We could all be "Navigating Like Neo" in the Matrix by simply moving our hands around in the air or simply speaking commands. I know for a fact that they are working on a Microsoft "home" system where the whole house is integrated and the user interface (note - no GUI) is voice based, ala Captain Kirk. Something to think about but these won't be $0.99 apps, a.k.a. programs.
 
In "the bad" section Gruener is talking about the fact that Cnet is offering apps for Windows systems, therefore creating competition to a prospective Windows Store, dooming it from the start. Yse he fails to explain how is this bad for Windows 8 in general (see title of article). It's like competition is bad for the platform. IMO, competition only brings the platform into focus, because there are more suppliers fighting for the same OS. By some twisted logic, this is supposed to be bad. Maybe in Apple's model, where there is only one AppStore available for their customers and the developers who are being taken for a ride by Apple's practices.
If MS puts the right set of tools in devs' hands and set them loose, there is no telling where the devs are going to stop. How can this be bad?
About Xbox live: I think that a store that has X-box in it's name will not be taken seriously by most businesses and businessmen. That is too quickly associated with the gaming platform, and most users are not interested in that. The idea behind integrating apps and making them available via a common portal is good, that's what Android and iOS are doing, but the name can hurt it. If anything, that would be "the bad".
I took the time to read Gruener's spewing, mostly because I try really hard to make some sense of what he is telling and to use some sane arguments to show that he is wrong about this (like about other million things he's been wrong in the past). Truth is, he likes to bash everything that is not Apple and in the end he does not need logical arguments to do that (haters never use logic). That's why my attempts to understand his logic have eventually failed, and this article is no different. Take the "touch" section, for instance. MS is trying to unify the app store by promoting apps that are useful using the Metro interface, but at the same time can (and will) be used by desktop/notebook users via a classic interface (KB and mouse). MS has always affirmed the fact that the classic UI will not be abandoned (how can it? it's their bread and butter for more than 90percent of all PCs) and therefore it's logical that every important/essential application will have a classic UI and a Metro UI support. Yet for Gruener having options is (again) something bad. In case he's not informed, Apple is doing the same exact thing, trying to unify apps for iOS and their MacOS. I presume that is good for Gruener only in Apple's case, but not in MS'?
I rest my case.
 
Can't wait for the Windows 8 appstore with the new tablet centric Metro UI on my traditonal desktop/labtop pc, so I can use the current most popular downloaded apps on Itunes and Android app store including Facebook, Gmail, and google maps, along with top selling games like Angry birds and fruit ninja. Its not like we had easy access to these web applications on desktops before apps stores.

Wait a minute......something seems off.
 
download.com and cnet... give me a break! That is the biggest rip-off site I know of. Between software trying to tack on their stupid spy toolbars to their virus checkers that find the viruses but charge for removal. I trust nothing that comes from there.

And now even Apples and Android appstores are crap because of "in app" purchasing. It essentially allows devs to "hide" the real price. I just hope MS doesn't allow this deceptive practice. I see tons of games on Android and Apple come out that are now "free".
 
I think it could be a big success if Microsoft makes sure all the apps are malware, virus free and won't crash any computer. if they can do that then that's where everyone will get their apps. I for one do not trust download.com or cnet, softpedia, etc because these sites inject your computer with malware and spyware. There's even sites out there that look very similar to these and your average user couldnt tell the real from the fake one apart.

A Windows app store would remove the hassle of having to look all over the internet for something you need, like say a video converter. You could get one by doing a search in the app store and you'll be sure that it would work and is clean where as if a user looks for that in the internet, 9 times out of 10 it will be infected.

Just think about it. The potential of your average user to get infected by virus, malware and spyware would decrease drastically if like I said, Microsoft keeps a close watch to the apps and tests them thoroughly.
 
i will be still using newegg.com, google.com and steam. As far as Windows Store goes it can succeed if it's done right but since it will evolve around Metro Interface i can tell you that it will fail in no time. There will be shit load of viruses and apps which will here and there break your Windows or fuck up registry, i can see this coming all through Windows Store. Also lot of cases of potential security break and gaining your private information. I am going to have a good laugh in about a year or so.
 
i will be still using newegg.com, google.com and steam. As far as Windows Store goes it can succeed if it's done right but since it will evolve around Metro Interface i can tell you that it will fail in no time. There will be shit load of viruses and apps which will here and there break your Windows or fuck up registry, i can see this coming all through Windows Store.
 
Xerroz has a good point, but the big problem I'd anticipate from a "clean" Microsoft store is prices. Existing Microsoft discount programs (with the exception of the Home Use Program) have prices that can't touch Newegg, Steam, or any other similarly clean source of software. If they want software to be treated like a commodity, their prices need to reflect that.
 
[citation][nom]unionoob[/nom]people can bash MS app store, but to be honest I would preffer to use it over googleing and hopeing I don't an virus or trojan, it would be even easier to get apps I need and some small developers which actually make good soft could get some cash.. I see more ++ then --[/citation]

Sandboxie is good for testing new programs without worrying about the effects it may have on the rest of the system.
Alternatively you could learn to manage a personal backup routine so that if SHTF you can restore your PC to a pre 'rogue' (bloody SOPA =X ) program state.
A third option further down is to install Oracle VM VirtualBox on your PC and make a virtual installation of Win7 purely for program testing purposes (or more advanced would be to tangle with a bare metal install of VMWare and run your machine without a Host OS).

Sure it sounds more difficult then it is (seriously I wish I learned all that sooner =) ), and there may be even more/simpler means of testing a new program with minimal exposure to the varietys of infection on the net, but all that above is far better IMHO then the potential walled (and expensive pay as you go) garden that may be MS Apps.

As for Devs making cash; I'd much rather ensure all the $ I pay/donate to the devs of good software goes to them whom rightfully deserve it as opposed to having 3rd party (as if the likes of Paypal are not bad enough without MSFT copying APPL here =X ) skim a share off the work of others.

I've (like many others before me) had no trouble finding good and reliable applications in the 15+ years I've toyed with Windows (and there will be newbies all the time making mistakes and getting trojans etc., someones got to keep the computer repair monkeys at work =P ) and thus see no value in MSFT having an App store now (ugh App store, I guess Program Store doesn't sound as good =X ).

In short, I see this App store as being no incentive for me to move up from Win 7.
 
i've been wondering where the word app came from for a long time. Tuns out that the extension for applications in mac os is ".app". So i have redoubled my efforts to avoid calling full scale pc applications apps, it just feels that i'm bowing to the bitten fruit logo by doing so.

long live ".exe" and whatever the linux equivalent is (".tar.gz" ??)...
 
Touch screen on PC/notebook is not gonna make any sense, Nobody is going to reach their hand to the LCD screen that sit 1-2 feet away.

What Microsoft need is to Get rid of traditional Keyboard + mouse controls, by replacing a better cheaper kinect(from Xbox) + a laser lighting the project a virtual keyboard on my desk, then Use kinect to detect my finger so I can type on my desk and I use my finger draw around my desk acting as virtual mouse.

The kinect also act as a Mic so I can speak with "Microsoft version of SIRI" directly from my voice.

Do all that sell the kinect device under $100(or bundle it with Windows 8, then u'll see windows 8 Successful
 
RE: "What kind of tech journalist in almost 2012 still refers to Windows PHONE as Windows Mobile?"

It went from winmo6 to wp7. Call a turd by any other name, does it stink any less?
 
...when they know damn well that a particular customer is going to be quickly lost in the needless complexity of android...
Click to expand...

I completely disagree with you. Android is a rather lame operating system to use, and takes only about one hour to master the basics. My objection to Android is that it is right now the only choice, unless you want to be jailed by iOS5 and the Apple minions of control and defrauding. A windows phone is a viable alternative and could do very well with the proper venue of apps support. One way Microsoft could succeed in making their phone popular would be by opening up stores specifically for their phones in the major cities of the world.

While I like Android, I feel uncomfortable depending on one company for so much of what I do. We need some competition and Apple is absolutely not a smart option, although that could change if they unlocked themselves up and started addressing the needs of its users rather than only Apple's greed.



 
[citation][nom]mobrocket[/nom]Good points in this article... MSFT has a real challedge on their hands for the next decade... their windows cash hog is slowly dying[/citation]
Agree and thumbed you up but Tom's has allot of MS fanboys on it who will thumb anything bad about their beloved Windows gaming OS.
MS copying Apple again, have been since the beginning.
 
[citation][nom]del35[/nom]I completely disagree with you. Android is a rather lame operating system to use, and takes only about one hour to master the basics. My objection to Android is that it is right now the only choice, unless you want to be jailed by iOS5 and the Apple minions of control and defrauding. A windows phone is a viable alternative and could do very well with the proper venue of apps support. One way Microsoft could succeed in making their phone popular would be by opening up stores specifically for their phones in the major cities of the world.While I like Android, I feel uncomfortable depending on one company for so much of what I do. We need some competition and Apple is absolutely not a smart option, although that could change if they unlocked themselves up and started addressing the needs of its users rather than only Apple's greed.[/citation]
You forgot to mention Blackberry, very safe and tested.
 
[citation][nom]Tomfreak[/nom]Touch screen on PC/notebook is not gonna make any sense, Nobody is going to reach their hand to the LCD screen that sit 1-2 feet away.What Microsoft need is to Get rid of traditional Keyboard + mouse controls, by replacing a better cheaper kinect(from Xbox) + a laser lighting the project a virtual keyboard on my desk, then Use kinect to detect my finger so I can type on my desk and I use my finger draw around my desk acting as virtual mouse. The kinect also act as a Mic so I can speak with "Microsoft version of SIRI" directly from my voice.Do all that sell the kinect device under $100(or bundle it with Windows 8, then u'll see windows 8 Successful[/citation]
The FED would love that since MS is in bed with them. FED spyware in your face. Carrier IQ was from the FEDS.
 
I honestly hope it does fail. The move to centralised application stores is something that needs to be fought. That the Windows store will be the only way to distribute Metro-style apps to non-developer/enterprise users should be ringing alarm bells, people.

I like some things about Windows 8, but as others have mentioned, the Start Screen is a disaster for mouse and keyboard users. It seems unlikely that Microsoft will reverse course and let users disable the new interface in time for the release of Windows 8, but we can only hope that Windows 9 restores sanity to the platform.
 
[citation][nom]lradunovic77[/nom]If i was MS CEO, i would kill Metro project as there is still time. Revert Windows 8 interface back to Windows 7 interface and i guess keep Ribbon Feature (still needs to be polished) to make UI consistent and do some UI tweaks here and there Windows 7 was lacking. Bring all the kernel changes and features from Windows 8. And ship the product, i bet it would succeed a big time. After it goes RTM fire whole design team with Managers and hire some smart people out there, people who are in UI Business for decades.[/citation]
Dude, Ribbon is a bad thing...
 
IMHO, the store for Windows will be dropped, as there is competitive freeware for everything out there. Its really hard to sell, if u get free alternative for it.

But, on the other hand, MS don't have to convince everybody to buy, just every 25th should buy, it could live on.

Time will tell.....
 
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