Throughout the Windows 8 preview timeframe, we’ve been humbled by interest in the Windows Store and amazed at the level of creativity you’ve poured into app development on the new platform. With today’s launch of Windows 8, we’re excited to open the Windows Store to the world, providing new opportunities for your apps to be discovered and downloaded by consumers around the world. In this post, Ted Dworkin, Partner Director of Program Management, talks about the path to Windows 8 general availability and the great work our partners have done to support the grand opening of the Windows Store today.
--Antoine
October 26th marks the opening of the Windows Store for consumers around the world. We’ve spent the past year jointly building the Windows Store with our early partners, and starting today, consumers broadly can experience Windows 8 and the amazing apps you’ve built.
The Windows Store has come a long way in less than a year. From our Store preview last December, to Windows 8 Consumer Preview with 70+ partners, Release Preview with 200+ partners, to general availability—we’ve had tremendous support from the publishers you see in the Store today, building multiple times while we delivered an evolving platform. Thanks to all of them for their early commitment and effort in joining us today for general availability.
Apps bring Windows to life
Over the past year, we’ve showcased some of the great apps that bring the new Windows 8 experience to life. The apps you see in the Store today take advantage of Windows 8 design and represent fantastic diversity across categories.
- You can stream TV and movies with Netflix and Hulu Plus.
- Apps from the largest broadcast networks in the US are in the Store, notably ABC, CBS, and The CW. We’re also proud of special interest apps from providers like NBC News, FX, SyFy, Comedy Central, MTV News, and the Oprah Winfrey Network.
- Families can enjoy entertainment from Disney, Sprout, ABC Family, and more.
- Stream music and enjoy radio from more than 70,000 terrestrial, internet and custom radio stations with iHeartRadio, Slacker, and TuneIn Radio.
- Shop with apps like eBay, Newegg, and LivingSocial, including Kindle for books.
- Stay up-to-date with the largest newspapers by circulation in the US with the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times, and LA Times.
- Top games like Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride and more coming with apps like Angry Birds Star Wars and Bad Piggies.
- Apps from AT&T, Vodafone, China Mobile, China Telecom, Orange, NTT DoCoMo, and Telefonica power built-in broadband connectivity to mobile networks around the world.
The Windows Store is an international store, with apps for more than 200 markets and 100 languages. We love the global support from top social sites like Renren, QQ, and Sina Weibo in China, Daum in Korea and Vkontkakte in Russia. We’re also proud to feature media apps like Sky News, Financial Times, and Dailymotion in the UK and top commerce sites like Mercado Libre in South America.
Today is just day 1
As much as we celebrate the joint effort that has realized today’s Store, we are focused on moving forward every day—evolving and expanding the service in ways that benefit consumers and our publishing partners. In the past four weeks alone, we’ve seen a 300% increase in the Store catalog and the submission trend continues. Since we started outreach through efforts like the Windows 8 Developer Camps in early 2012, we’ve hosted more than 400,000 developers in 87 countries. We’re excited to see the growing momentum.
Our very first blog post noted our commitment to deliver the most significant opportunity for app builders in history, and that mission fuels us daily. On behalf of all of us who work on the Windows Store, thank you for creating great apps, for continuing to inspire us with your innovation and creativity, and for joining us on this journey.
--Ted