This Is How Microsoft’s Windows 8 Apps Came to Be

Windows 8 is delivered with a bunch of pretty great apps, including Weather, Finance, Maps and News programs to help users make the most of their Metro/Modern UI.

Microsoft revealed in a blog post that developing all these integrated apps required approximately one year of hard work as the company tried not only to offer fast and fluid experiences, but also to serve as an example for third party developers.

“When developing the apps, we had two objectives: to build a set of great apps to make Windows 8 even more compelling and to serve as a model for app developers,” the company said.

The blog post then goes on with some techy details to explain that all built-in Windows 8 apps are optimized for touch and tablet devices, but also work very well on desktop computers with keyboards and mice. They have been designed to make the most of Windows 8 features, such as Charms, the lock screen, live tiles, semantic zoom and snap mode.