Windows Store, Windows Phone Marketplace: Developers Joining?

The Windows Store, an online marketplace for Windows 8 applications, is now open for business. Meanwhile, Windows Phone Marketplace (another online store) continues to attract new mobile apps. But how many developer partners will embrace Microsoft’s new desktop, notebook, tablet and smartphone platforms? Hmmm… Early answers will arrive Aug. 15. Here’s why.

Starting Aug. 15, Microsoft says it will offer the final Windows 8 build to MSDN subscribers. Those subscribers will be able to submit paid apps to the Windows Store. The base store fee, Microsoft indicated, is 30% of revenue; the fee falls to 20% for any app that achieves $25,000 USD (or equivalent) in total revenue using Microsoft’s transaction platform.

If everything goes as planned, the Windows Store will fill up fast with new apps, providing plenty of motivation for consumers to buy Windows 8 PCs when they become available Oct. 26. (Still, there’s one big reason why corporate Windows 8 deployments could occur slowly.)

Meanwhile, Microsoft also continues to promote Windows Phone Marketplace. During an earnings call in July, Microsoft Investor Relations General Manager Bill Koefoed said:

That certainly sounds promising, but Windows phones remain extreme niche offerings while Apple iPhone and Google Android smartphone sales continue to climb dramatically. And Developers continue to flock to Apple iOS. Apple’s App Store now offers more than 650,000 apps, including over 225,000 apps specifically for iPad, the company said in July 2012.

Back in the Microsoft ecosystem, some developers are wondering why the Windows Store and Windows Phone Marketplace are separate stores — especially when Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 are based on the same core technologies.

For channel partners, The VAR Guy will be sure to closely track vertical market and line of business apps that surface in the Windows Store and Windows Phone Marketplace.