Windows Store now open to all developers in 120 markets

 

Today’s an especially great day to be a developer. We’re very excited to announce the last significant milestone in the rollout of the Windows Store before the general availability of Windows 8 on October 26. The Store is now open for app submissions from all developers – individuals and companies – in our supported markets, and we’ve added 82 more app submission markets! Now, developers from 120 markets can publish Windows Store apps. Ted Dworkin, Partner Program Manager for the Store, authored this post.

--Antoine


At every major Windows 8 development milestone – Release Preview, Consumer Preview, RTM – we’ve added markets toward our commitment to a truly global offering. We often hear from those who don’t yet have support in their market, and we’ve said we’ll keep expanding. Today’s 82 additional markets more than doubles our support toward enabling developer opportunity everywhere there’s a developer with desire. And as we’ve said before, we will just keep going. You can check out the complete list of supported markets on the Dev Center.

We’re also announcing a number of additional subscription program offerings that recognize and thank developers for their interest and commitment to Windows. All eligible MSDN subscribers receive a free, one-year Windows Store developer account as part of their MSDN benefits. (Eligible subscriptions include Visual Studio Professional, Test Professional, Premium, Ultimate, and BizSpark.) We have a program for students—DreamSpark—that similarly waives the subscription fee. And we have an offer for businesses in our BizSpark program, as well.

Throughout the Windows Store preview stages, we’ve seen fantastic interest from individual developers, large development houses and component and service providers. And as we’ve opened up new markets for onboarding and expanded our invitations, we’ve seen a great increase in both the number and diversity of apps—all during our preview milestones, before broad availability of the OS and before even the first production Windows 8 PC is in the market. And the Windows 8 PCs are on the way, with many unveiled recently at IFA.

If you’ve already signed up—fantastic. We’re ready for your app. Haven’t signed up yet? Getting started is easy—just go to the Windows Store Dashboard on the Windows Dev Center and sign up. The dev tools are free, the SDK is ready, and we have a ton of great supporting content to help you build your app and submit it for Store certification. Sign up now, reserve your app names—we look forward to seeing your app in the Store in time for the general availability of Windows 8.

--Ted

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    Good news. I just want to give you a little feedback about the Store. Could please add Installation space requiered for the app, in the App listing page? Downloadsize is already written there.

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    As a windows phone developer its a shame i have to pay again for windows 8 registration... :/

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
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  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
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  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    Is there any plans to get developers early access to arm devices for testing.  I already have one review that says "Slow on Arm devices".   Right now my only option is to go purchase an old Netbook and buy a touch screen monitor to really debug this comment.

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    I've tried registering now but there's no option to mention dreamspark before the price appears, how do you receive a free dreamspark based account on the dev center?

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    Sol, see if this helps you: http://aka.ms/APStoreAccess

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    Hey I know, why don't we all post off-topic support requests to a news blog

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    I'm stuck in this page: appdev.microsoft.com/.../SetupPayment The circular loading indicator never stops and page never loads...

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    Where's Costa Rica!!??? How's that possible!!!!???? :(

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    So I already pay to develop for the phone, now I have to pay again to develop for Windows 8? Really?

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    Alex, you are probably the only person in this planet that does not know where Costa Rica is. Nice setup for us programmers.

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    @FuturixTX, @Riasat: Sorry to hear about the issues you are seeing.  You can contact support to get help working through the issues.  Go to msdn.microsoft.com/.../hh690938 and click the link for “Help with your Developer Account”.  

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    I have the following problem with the Windows 8 Store: I’ve been going back to the Win8 Store daily and it has said there are 88 new applications now for a long time.  I have to scroll through the list and try and figure out what is REALLY new and what is that which I have already seen.  I have no idea where the new apps will appear at the beginning, end or scattered in the list.  When I go to the list I only want to see what is new since the last time I looked. ...and if I go on holidays and come back and there have been 200 hundred new apps added... I don’t want to see just the last 100 I want to page through all since the last time I looked... I do not want to miss any.   I hope more improvements can be made... making it too simple can frustrate consumers too.

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    When I select Problem Type and Category, I get this: There was a problem processing this request. Please try again after a few minutes. I guess I'll try again tomorrow.

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    oh and in the payment page, F12 dev tools -> network shows that it is repeatedly loading the page (or frame).

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    I have a Windows Phone Developer Account and am published in the marketplace.  Now, as I sign up for Windows Store, my question is whether I should use the same Hotmail Email Id I have used to sign up for WP Dev Account?  Assuming, sometime in future, if two stores merge what all details between the two accounts should be the same so that I am least impacted?

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
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  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
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  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    Great News!!! Congrats and all the best for the great WINning Team...

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    I have Visual Studio Premium with MSDN (MPN) Subscription, how can I get a Registration code? I've tried to enter my Subscriber ID but it doesn't work.

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
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  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    I want to give you heedback about the store. I'm using Windows 8 in spanish. Un the "try" button you translated it as "intentar" and this is absolutely wrong. The word for this action is "probar". There is another wrong translatins and gramatical errors on Windows 8 and I want to send to you direct feedback, but I don't know how to do it. Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
    Finally I got my account and booked my name there :)

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2012
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  • Anonymous
    September 12, 2012
    I paid my invidividual account and I'm trying to send my first free app, but they say than can't certificate my app because my account isn't veryfied. I send the tax forms too. I don't have idea or more information about if I need wait more time to try again to send my app. Any ideas?

  • Anonymous
    September 12, 2012
    Typical.  I wait almost a year for the store to open and you go and open it the day after I spend all my wages I will have to wait until next week now before I can open an account.  Curse you Microsoft hehe.  I'm so happy the store is now open and can't wait to add my apps and I will now be checking the store every day to see what wonderful apps are available now that the store is open to all.

  • Anonymous
    September 13, 2012
    Hi, so i'm a little confused. I have to pay to upload apps to the market? even if i put them as 'free'? I think that people who just put apps as 'free' should have the right to put apps for free. Or do people get paid when they put free apps in the store? Because i don't really have a bank account yet, but i've been coding for windows 8 for long. I want to put my apps online. Can someone please answer?, thank you!

  • Anonymous
    September 13, 2012
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  • Anonymous
    September 13, 2012
    How do you specify your MSDN Subscription when signing up to avoid the $49.00 yearly fee? --rj

  • Anonymous
    September 13, 2012
    I'm getting more and more disinterested in Windows 8 and Windows Store.  I believe Microsoft is trying to milk software developers of every penny.

  • Anonymous
    September 15, 2012
    Great news...

  • Anonymous
    September 15, 2012
    Cool news but I don't like the idea where the only solution to add a application is the windows store.

  • Anonymous
    September 15, 2012
    Ukraine is one of the most comfort and largest outsourcing markets. Please, add Ukraine too!

  • Anonymous
    September 16, 2012
    Unfortunately Malta is not in the list.... Can it be added?

  • Anonymous
    September 18, 2012
    Everybody is waiting for individual dev account instead of company account for Windows Store...please speed up, Microsoft, if you want to win back Apple..

  • Anonymous
    September 24, 2012
    I'm getting problem to make the account at dreamspark, as i want to make account on windows store.... As I'm Microsoft student partner, any suggestion, help??

  • Anonymous
    September 29, 2012
    The signup process for a Company has a Developer and an Approver field which seems to require they be different.  However, for a company with one employee (the Developer and Approver are the same), this won't work.  Is there a way for companies with only a single employee (ie. a single member LLC) for liability protection reasons sign up as a Company instead of as an Individual?

  • Anonymous
    October 03, 2012
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  • Anonymous
    October 11, 2012
    When can I sell apps as personal account, just like Google Play and Apple iTunes App store?? Answer me Microsoft..!!!

  • Anonymous
    October 11, 2012
    The store has a clean, fresh look and the categories generally make sense but a search feature (in and across categories) would be a good idea. I realize that the App Store will be search indexed and linkable but casual users may be looking for a particular app or might not know which category to look in and might not think about exiting the store to search from the web. One idea might be adding an "App Store" category to the "Apps", "Settings" & "Files" categories in the Windows 8 search. Since users are already used to the idea of having  Internet sourced help, templates, etc., the idea that searching for Apps might include Apps available for installation as well as those already installed. Not criticizing, just saying.

  • Anonymous
    October 15, 2012
    I am a Student trying to develop new applications and got a Code from Microsoft for Windows 8 store but i dont have a credit card and as i am a student my parents dont let me do so... Is there any other way... kindly help me out...

  • Anonymous
    October 17, 2012
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 23, 2012
    I have MSDN subscription already, How do I get store account ?

  • Anonymous
    October 27, 2012
    India's got local store msdn.microsoft.com/.../hh694064.aspx & search engines redirect to www.microsoftstore.co.in and that's defunct which detriments developer registration. Having wrapped up academics for good, this time I want to venture as sole proprietor startup, & so I idealize fresh platform that Windows RT is. However, given the mislead I just mentioned, how can I take concrete step?

  • Anonymous
    October 31, 2012
    Windows Store Team - Can you guys comeup with a catchy domain/url for Windows 8 Store Dashboard for Dev's to access it quickly ? appdev.microsoft.com/StorePortals - This URL is pretty weird and lengthy one. Also, let us know whether there's an API/Service to access the App performance report data from outside of this Dashboard, say I want to pull it from another .NET app. Is it possible.

  • Anonymous
    October 31, 2012
    My App - DomainTool to lookup for domain name availability and WhoIs has been released to the store on 26th. WoW. DomainTool App URL: apps.microsoft.com/.../f600bb40-2ffe-4ed4-8de9-e2468e32a566 But, daily to go to this appdev url several times, to get the code in our mail, then go to Dashboard, see different reports, is really a pain. Badly Dev's need an API to pull our reports in a secure way. Pls do something. BTW, I did a blog post on how to consume mashape service here - blogs.jinishans.com/.../consume-json-web-service-from-windows-8.html

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2012
    Thank you for sharing this post….This post is really useful to me because i have that much of interest about this post.Thank you.