14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since Microsoft officially unveiled the new Windows 8 operating system, the company has started investing a fortune into campaigns supposed to bring developers closer and convince them to port their apps to the modern platform.
The number of apps has gradually increased, even though the initial uptake seemed rather disappointing. At first, Microsoft was clearly putting the focus on quantity, promising that more than 100,000 apps would reach the store before February 2013.
Over the last few months, however, things have improved a lot, so at this point, there are more than 130,000 apps available for Windows 8 and 8.1 users.
While this is not yet a sign that all developers have decided to port their apps to Windows 8, because many high-quality software programs are still missing from the store, it can only be good news for Redmond, as investments in this area continue these days.
Microsoft’s new problem right now is the quality of the apps listed in the store. Many of the items that Microsoft approves to be listed for download are nothing more than spam apps, some of which are trying to capitalize on the popularity of some other software solutions that are yet to be released on Windows 8.
VLC, for example, is yet to get a Windows 8 port, but several clones have already reached the store, trying to trick people into believing that they are downloading the real deal. Most of these clones are not offered for free and are requiring users to pay a few bucks for a license that doesn’t make any difference, as the feature lineup is extremely limited.
Overall, the growing number of apps is clearly a good thing for all Windows 8 and 8.1 users, but Microsoft urgently needs to address issues concerning spam and the overall quality of apps that are offered to adopters of its new OSes.