Windows 8 app store coming soon - enterprise and developer details revealed
Microsoft aiming to lure app makers with 80 per cent cut...
Microsoft has given more details on what to expect from its upcoming Windows Store for Windows 8 – the shop window for apps based on Windows 8's Metro interface.
Unlike previous Windows' interfaces, Metro is a tile-based system specifically designed for touchscreens - having already premiered as part of Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system.
According to Microsoft, enterprise IT managers have been asking about "deployment and management scenarios, such as compliance and security" around Windows 8, Ted Dworkin, partner program manager for the Store wrote in a blog post.
IT managers will be able to control what apps users can access from the Windows Store, or indeed whether they can access the store at all, Dworkin said.
Companies can also circumvent the store and roll out apps directly to users.
"For Windows 8 Beta, IT administrators can use group policy to permit Metro style app installations, as long as the apps are signed by trusted publishers and the machines are joined to the domain. Then the IT admin can use powershell commandlets to manage those Metro-style apps on Windows 8," Dworkin said.
How The Telegraph's Windows 8 app will lookImage: Microsoft
In an effort to attract more developers to the platform, Microsoft announced that app-builders will be able to keep 80 per cent of revenue generated by apps sold through the store but only after the app has generated $25,000. Up to that point developers will be able to keep 70 per cent of the revenue, in line with most app stores such as Apple's Mac App Store.
Any in-app purchases within Windows Store apps will also see 70 per cent of revenue retained by the app seller until $25,000 revenue has been reached, then the developer can hold 80 per cent. If the app-maker uses non-Microsoft systems for in-app purchases Microsoft will take no cut.
In order to sell their wares, individual Windows Store app developers will need to pay an annual subscription of $49 to Microsoft, while companies will have to cough up $99.
Microsoft has set the starting price of a paid app at $1.49, with developers able to raise prices in 49 cent increments.
The store is set to go live from next February – the same time as the Windows 8 beta release.