Desktop Apps Pave their way to Windows Store

[Timan Veteran]

Well when no one makes metro apps, this is what happens.

[PGHammer]

I'm pretty sure that's not true given that they're allowing people to distribute Metro apps free.

And there are plenty of free iOS apps on the iOS App Store (same applies to the Mac App Store) - all our local (Washington, DC) TV stations have both iOS and Android apps - all free.

Not one source of apps (or even applications) is restricted to non-free apps or application *except* retail (brick and mortar). One thing I miss from the Consumer Preview, however (and it's not in the RP version of the Store) is PinballFX 2 - will it return?

[Nazmus Shakib Khandaker]

I know; why have it in the App Store if you can't get it from there. Oh, I guess I can just open my browser and go to winzip.com. If you can't obtain it there, it's not a store, it's just advertising. Of course, you get ads on many of the new Metro apps. With music, for example. I don't care about the brainless idiot pop music being churned out, I just want to play my music. But now, it's like my PC is just another conduit for advertising.

No, it doesn't take you to the website home page, but, rather, it takes you to the download/purchase page for that desktop app. It is a requirement that for the app to be certified to go to the store, it can't link to an advertisement but, rather, it MUST link directly to the download or purchase page.

[.Neo]

But isn't the fact that they are still listed in the store good enough? You may discover some great desktop apps that you may not know about once the store gets abundant and I don't see anything wrong with having to download from the vendor's website.

Honestly? No. Imagine a store putting up promotional material for a certain product only to direct you to another store if you actually want to purchase it. Generally that wouldn't make much sense. What about a central place to get updates? I'd say overall it's a pretty subpar experience compared to OS X' App Store. :/

I know I won't make myself popular by saying this: But right now everything Metro seems incredibly half-assed. I'm really hoping the current experience will do a 180 before reaching RTM.

[.Neo]

Just going to copy pasta what Johnny said:

I prefer this way actually and I'm sure many developers do too. It's free advertising for them, and they don't have to pay MS anything. The downside is they are responsible for handling the payments, the software delivery etc.

In the process Microsoft isn't motivating app developers to switch to the Marketplace at all. They're also turning Windows into a advertising platform without the end-user gaining much by it, such as having a centralized platform for payments and updating in return.