WinAppUpdate - Latest Comments

Re: Windows Store: Any Way to Figure out Who’s On First?

Pablo Villa — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:40:07 -0000

Wes, do you know if Is there any way to get the app catalogue using an api? thanks

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

Martin McMannus — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 21:12:55 -0000

Would it not be cheaper (and provide a more engaging user experience) if Microsoft were to sell by online order, brown paper bags of selected dog turds?

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

vessdm — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:53:00 -0000

I have Image Locker 2 from lunaplena. It is the best free app for photo security.

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

ralph — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:48:24 -0000

really agreed i have Image Locker Ultimate on My Phone, it is the best app with taste i have ever seen for photos on windows phone app store. search for lunaplena apps on google, or search for lunaplena on windows app store

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

anonymous — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:31:41 -0000

When you ask for quality, you get quality, when you ask for quantity you get quantity. Microsoft is running competition in India, with no quality guidelines and this is what happens. The lunaplena guy also has one of the best apps (Image Locker Ultimate) which has over 50000 downloads. Blame Microsoft , not the developers.

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

devMomentum — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:29:22 -0000

If you are looking for an app with full data entry needs, I built one and is available in the store, it is called "My Personal Data Manager". There is also a free version that will let you explore the app features. Just define your Data Types (the structure of your Data), which supports Type reuse and sub-lists, and you get the forms to enter your data. You can even create reports on it.

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

MarkAllett — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 05:16:04 -0000

I'm not sure that I understand the benefit of people doing this though. The only thing I can think of is that Microsoft have been running various competitions where the number of apps you have in the store equates to the number of entries in the competition. That encourages clone apps.

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

bob — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 15:35:30 -0000

they won't change it- it inflates the app count

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

wesvvv — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 12:40:05 -0000

I'll put on my conspiracy hat and say that MS knows all about this. Anything to get that app count up.

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

Lindsay — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:38:02 -0000

An innumerable number you say?

If the universe collapses I'm blaming you.

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

Jeff — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:30:12 -0000

me thinks this apps are beautiful. installed all 140 of them. now my start screen feel so much more like the old start menu. kidding.

Re: Windows Store: Any Way to Figure out Who’s On First?

allaneq — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:09:43 -0000

That helps users who know about it - but doesn't help that this is an innate issue with the store as a whole.

Re: Windows Store: Any Way to Figure out Who’s On First?

Wayne Conrad — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:04:21 -0000

I just discovered the answer to your discontent with the app store. Great Windows Apps is an app (or webpage) that helps weed the junk and brings new apps to the forefront. It may not be perfect but it is hands down better than Microsoft's store.

Re: Windows Store: Any Way to Figure out Who’s On First?

tt92618 — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:50:37 -0000

It's just a silly holiday app - SantaTrack (http://apps.microsoft.com/webp.... It's not exactly rocket science but I did invest quite a bit of effort into making the app a quality piece for what it is.

I've had approximately 36 downloads so far. Since it is being monetized through ad support, that puts me somewhere at or below the worst third world wage structure for my efforts. I am, shall we say, a bit underwhelmed.

I have some productivity and reference apps in the works so maybe they will fare better. I'm giving the Win8 store some time... but so far it doesn't look good.

There is a conversation going in the dev forums about how top paid social app DL's are like 25 or 30 UNITS a day. I honestly didn't believe the numbers, but when I looked at total DL count per day in that category, I found they were something like 400 units. That's awful. It is so aggressively bad it defies imagination.

Re: Windows Store: Any Way to Figure out Who’s On First?

Sam — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 12:55:52 -0000

Just out of curiousity, may you share your app? From my experience, traditional "fun" and purely entertainment based apps are going to struggle in the Windows Store compared to the iOS or Android stores. Productivity apps will be much more successful. Example: NextGen Reader. That's becasue the vast majority of the Windows 8 app users will be using it on 11"+ screens with mouse + keyboard.

Re: Windows Store: Any Way to Figure out Who’s On First?

tt92618 — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 02:02:59 -0000

The biggest issue I see with the store is structural, though I concede that it really revolves around, or interacts with, the subject matter of your previous post.

The structure of the store makes apps very difficult for users to 'discover' - apps are essentially just small rectangles in a sea of similar items, and there is very little about any one of them that is distinguishing from any others. Although Microsoft breaks apps up into categories and shows you 'noteworthy' apps by default, there is no way for a user to move from one category to the next by browsing, and the information offered in any given tile is so sparse that it doesn't provide users with enough information to know if the tile represents what they are looking for, or might be looking for.

There is almost no way, in an environment like that, for a small developer to get their offering noticed. All of the app stores (iOS and Android) suffer from this same problem, but the structure of the MS store makes the problem much worse in my opinion. The problem is then exacerbated greatly by the huge number of junk apps that are pouring into the store, because they add clutter into a visual / information channel that is already poorly structured and not very capable of giving a user enough information to find anything beyond what the store shoves directly in their face. The result is that only the apps which appear on that first page of app tiles, and probably only those near the start of the list, will get much notice. In reality, the biggest winners are those on the first page - the three or four winners who are listed as featured apps for a category. I bet if you ran a correlation between non-MS apps and those featured, you'd find they are the ones getting the lions share of the downloads.

In the absence of compensating factors on Microsoft's part, this sort of thing is going to discourage developers who produce quality work; the payoff just isn't there, and I say that as a published developer.

As a developer, I have to say I'm very discouraged by these problems with the MS store. I had some initial high hopes, but I just don't see a huge upside right now. I've worked hard to make the apps I produce quality pieces, but they have received so few downloads that it doesn't even begin to compensate. I'm faced with competitors who flood the store with apps they could literally generate out of some automator, and against that, what advantage is there for me to spend a month building a single, high quality app? Craft, maybe. But certainly no financial advantage.

Here's to hoping someone in Redmond actually reads your blog.

Re: Why no news on winappupdate.com? I’ve been traveling!

voleheart — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 23:26:12 -0000

forgiven

Re: Windows Store: Any Way to Figure out Who’s On First?

voleheart — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 23:23:49 -0000

logos quizes are extremely popular. it is hard to beat them no matter how bad they are, this one is quite good though

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

80s Rocker — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:03:31 -0000

I agree, these apps should be remove and the developer account revoke (with no refund). Bulk publishing should be prohibitive. I could see maybe 5-10, but 100+ is ridiculious. IMO any apps like this over 25 is to many (and that's generous). I was hoping the MS store was going to be defferent w/ majority of applications being high quality apps, but this proves it will probably have more crap apps than quality apps (just like the Apple Store). The apps above look horrible (my son could design better screens).

Re: Windows Store – Developers, don’t stuff the store with clones!

Bob Tabor — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 21:02:25 -0000

I'm hoping someone from Microsoft sees this and does the App Store equivalent of a tar and feathering. I realize that these sorts of things will sneak past those evaluating the apps on Microsoft's side, but once they come to light -- for the sake of the platform -- they've got to be removed.

Re: Windows Store: I’m holding out for a hero app

NaNO3 — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 10:07:40 -0000

My own Counter has a little different numbers but the same trend. Hopefully it goes on like this for another half year or so.

http://winapps.developer-zone....

Re: Windows Store: I’m holding out for a hero app

life_is_pleach — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 09:05:39 -0000

The Windows RT Store in Germany didn't have so much apps like the US Store. There's something going wrong on that. Especially important apps like Wikipedia or Zinio for example are not released in Germany yet. Microsoft has to improve it.

Re: Windows Store: I’m holding out for a hero app

Davinder Sangha — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:26:12 -0000

I can't see why Microsoft, with all it's expertise, doesn't just create apps for major companies as a helping hand. I'm enjoying my Surface, but it's like waiting for the postman every day, clicking on to the store to see if there are any new apps there. In the UK particularly waiting for a good magazine reader, plus Times newspaper and Sky GO.

Re: About WinAppUpdate

Warren at Partnerpedia — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:52:38 -0000

Looking to take your existing platform or idea to the next level ? My company is an MS Vendor and has been building Win 8 apps with their Modern design lab at the Corporate campus in Redmond. We have all the tools and Enterprise client confidence to build your app in 6 weeks or less with access to all the latest Win 8 features. Lets grow the app community toghether! wlyne@partnerpedia.com

Re: About WinAppUpdate

Flex Yan — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:46:06 -0000

You are doing a great job on Windows 8 apps. If you are looking for stellar apps, you may want to check out Craigslist+. It climbed to Top 10 in Lifestyle category in 10 days since it shipped.

Store link:
http://apps.microsoft.com/webp...

Demo:
http://youtu.be/XlHo8eOE7XM

Thanks and have a great day!