By Rich Robinson for Windows Guides
We’re no strangers to App Stores. Headed by Apple, companies are adding their own stores to their platforms and Microsoft is following suit.
As always, we at Windows Guides take a topic (not well-known, difficult to understand/get facts, commonly explained wrongly) and do our best to explain it to you. Here’s what I’ve gathered thus far by answering the questions I have on the Windows Store.
The Windows Store
Put simply, the Windows Store is a place to purchase Windows applications and download them directly to your PC. Both Microsoft and the application developers will test their apps with your version of Windows. There’s more…
Who/what Countries Can Use the Windows Store?
The store will be available (currently) in 231 different countries/territories and be available in over 100 languages. Here’s the list.
Microsoft states:
We’ll have a number of market-specific catalogs, tailored for those customers, and a “rest of world” (ROW) catalog for all other markets. Developers can choose the catalogs in which their app is listed, and we will continue to increase the number of market-specific catalogs and payment providers over time as we evolve the Store service.
When Will the Windows Store be Available?
I’ve been there: reading about something new, wanting to try it, but realizing the “something” I’ve read about doesn’t exist yet (how was I to know you can’t actually book a Moon trip yet??)
So the first question is: When will the Windows Store be available? Microsoft assure us the Windows Store will be available with the Windows 8 Beta, set for official release in February 2012 (subscribe for updates or view Windows 8 news and progress.)
Note: Only free apps will be available during the Beta.
