Is a Windows Store spring-clean enough for Microsoft to win back developers for Windows 10?
'Eliminating app clutter' and 'appropriate pricing' are top aims before Windows 10
As Windows 10 rolls ever closer, Microsoft is making another attempt to get its beleaguered Windows Store up to snuff by focusing on correct certification, "eliminating clutter" and more appropriately pricing individual apps.
Launching what it calls a "more robust approach" to app certification "to ensure customers can easily find high-value, high-quality apps" in the store, Microsoft is aiming to help customers "find the apps they are specifically seeking". Presumably this means improving in-store signposting so that users download "official" apps instead of copycat versions.
There is also talk of "eliminating app clutter" - as according to Microsoft it can "negatively impact customer experience" (who knew?). This will include removing "apps that do not offer unique content, creative value or utility", as well as apps which cannot be distinguished from other apps by their tile design.
Microsoft is also planning on bringing an "appropriate app pricing" model to the store, in order to counter assumptions that a "higher price is warranted based on superior functionality or value" - when it often isn't.
"Informational apps" such as tutorials and reference materials are also to be particularly targeted, with new measures to make sure they are "easily identified" to avoid accidental purchase. Such apps have sometimes been disguised as popular downloads, such as the VLC media player.
This isn't the first time Microsoft has taken measures to improve Windows Store's functionality, but "Policy 10.1" as the company is dubbing this policy, could be a more serious attempt to clean up as it comes just before the launch of Windows 10.
The company will be keen not to repeat the errors around the store's launch, which put many people off the Windows ecosystem in version 8. The store, dubbed the "Wild West" by some because of poor quality control, saw fake malware-infested versions of videogames sit undetected for weeks at a time.
But is an ordered app store all Microsoft needs to tempt back developers?
As Computing' s consulting editor Chris Middleton recently remarked, developers are still walking away from a Microsoft ecosystem which, however it changes at this point, could well be too little, too late. The user appeal is not there in a mobile landscape dominated by Android and Apple.
"In a rapidly ‘consumerised' business environment, in which we are all workers, consumers, and customers at the same time, that lack of user appeal is a serious drawback, and Microsoft has been losing momentum for a decade," says Middleton.
Redmond, he asserts, may be making in-roads into the back-end services and cloud, but as a primarily front-end company selling end user software solutions, it has "already lost that market to companies who put mobiles, tablets, app stores and social platforms front and centre of their own strategies".
There's a long road ahead of Microsoft, but only a few crucial weeks to get its house in order. Are you betting on Microsoft and Windows 10 as an all-round enterprise solution? Let us know in the comments below.