14 DAY TRIAL // VLC for Windows 8 was released approximately two weeks ago and plenty of users rushed to download it, which is not at all surprising given the fact that VideoLAN needed more than a year to launch the app.
In the meantime, however, plenty of developers tried to capitalize on the popularity of the original VLC for desktop application by releasing clones in the Windows Store, all of them available with a paid license and asking users to pay a few bucks only to download them.
Now it turns out that even though the real VLC for Windows 8 is available for download, clones are still making it to the store, which means that users might still get the wrong app if they’re not paying attention to the apps they open.
VLC Player 5.1.3, which is available in the store right now for $1.99 (€1.50), is the kind of app that’s trying to attract more downloads using VLC’s popularity, without actually providing too many details about its purpose.
The only screenshot published in the store, whose brief description only states “video mode” says almost nothing about its features, while users who want to give it a try can’t do that without first buying a license. As you could easily guess, no trial version is being offered. Unsurprisingly, support for all Windows 8.1 versions is being offered, including x86, x64, and ARM.
Of course, one would wonder how come Microsoft approves such applications in the store since it’s pretty clear that the company needs to offer as many high-quality apps as possible in order to attract more users to its modern platform.
We’ve recently reached to Microsoft to ask for more information on this and the company said that it was actually paying more attention to the apps listed for download, but it’s hoping that users would report items infringing the rules to help them clean the store.
“We strive to make the Windows Store an excellent experience for Windows 8 users. We routinely review apps based on performance, ratings and user reviews and take steps to remove apps if they do not meet our certification guidelines. We are aware of the issue and are actively removing apps that offer little value or confuse customers, and will continue evaluating our submission process to make sure Windows offers the highest quality app catalog available,” the company said.
As we can all see, that’s not really happening until now, so let’s just hope that Microsoft will indeed put the focus on the quality of the apps and not just on quantity, especially with so many great things coming for Windows users in future updates.