Microsoft Previews Windows Store

Ina Fried, live-blogging from yesterday’s announcement event:

Microsoft has shipped 500 million Windows PCs since Windows 7 shipped, compared with 247 million Android devices, 152 million iOS devices and 30 million Macs. “The reach of Windows is just so much bigger,” he says, noting that all of those rivals combined don’t add up to the number of Windows machines sold. “That’s what you get to participate in by developing Metro-style Windows apps.”

Kind of stunning that iOS is even that close. Think of it this way: iOS is five times bigger than the Mac, and only slightly under a third the size of Windows.

Leblond said the goal was to return the most money to developers. Pricing can be from $1.49 to $999.99. “A thousand bucks is just too much for an app,” he says.

Curious that they start at $1.49 rather than 99 cents. (Apple doesn’t hold a patent on that, do they?)

★ Wednesday, 7 December 2011