When Windows 8 officially launches later this year, Microsoft likely expects to have a large number of Windows 8 Metro apps available for download and sale on the Windows Store. In the newest post on the Windows Store blog site, Microsoft reveals some of the ways Metro app developers will be able to monitor the sales and user ratings of their apps.
The image above is what app developers will see after they release a Windows 8 Metro app via the Windows Store. The page shows a download chart, along with a rating graph to the side and a quality report on the bottom which shows how many errors the app has generated since its launch.
Microsoft will also offer a Conversions chart that will show how many downloads of the Windows 8 app become the paid version of that app, along with how many page views the app"s landing page gets. There will also be a separate graph that will provide info app to makers on where the app"s referral sources come from.
In terms of the downloads chart, it can be filtered to show how a Windows 8 Metro app ranks according to the average download of the top five apps in that subcategory. You can check to see how many men download the app versus the number of women, along with breakdowns by age group and also by country or region. For apps that support in-app purchases, Microsoft has set up a separate chart to monitor those statistics. There"s also a way to see how much average time is spent playing or using an app.
If you are still deciding on which app to make next, Microsoft will also offer statistics on the current trends in various app categories. The blog states:
After you select an App Type, Category and Subcategory, you can see the download trend for your selection. As you can see, we provide both time- and demography- based filtering, as well as demographic patterns. This information can help you quickly identify the categories (and subcategories) for your app, and which demographic segments you should target.
Images via Microsoft