14 DAY TRIAL // There are nearly 40,000 apps available in the Store right now, and even if some essential programs are completely missing, the number of available tools is continuously growing.
According to a Microsoft-news.com report, the average price of a Windows 8 Modern app is now $3.49 (€2.60), which makes it a bit more expensive than a software solution running on Apple’s iPad and priced at $3.39 (€2.52).
While the difference isn’t quite big, the same source reports that 9 out of the top 10 apps available in the Store arrived on iOS before coming to Windows 8, but that’s not at all surprising given the fact that Apple’s platform has been around for a while before the new Windows 8 hit the shelves.
Microsoft’s biggest problem, however, remains the number of apps available in the Store, as the company is apparently failing to meet its 100,000-unit goal set for February 1.
In addition, large companies such as Google and Facebook confirmed they had no intention to release any other Windows 8 Modern apps, so third-party developers are Microsoft’s only hope.
And truth is, Microsoft’s strategy to encourage software creators to build their own apps is paying off until now, with an important number of programs already designed to access both Google’s and Facebook’s services.
Still, the quality of the apps available in the Store right now isn’t quite impressive, with some developers across the globe claiming that Windows 8 is full of “ugly” and “useless” tools.
“Windows Store is already awash with thousands of pointless or ugly apps. This makes visibility very difficult. We've seen that in some parts of the world, there's an incentive to bloat the store with quantity, rather than focus on building quality apps,” Lightwood Games CEO Chris Newman said in December, trying to explain that, in the end, it’s the quality of the apps that’s really important and not their number.