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They've attempted to do that before: https://www.theverge.com/2013/3/19/4124548/microsoft-paying-developers-cash-for-windows-apps https://www.theverge.com/2013/

by yunyu 8y ago

They've attempted to do that before: https://www.theverge.com/2013/3/19/4124548/microsoft-paying-developers-cash-for-windows-apps https://www.theverge.com/2013/3/19/4124548/microsoft-paying-... All that lead to was a bunch of similar looking apps of questionable quality flooding the store.

ktjfi 8y ago
That was absolutely retarded. I remember they went around universities handing out Lumia 925 mobiles to anybody who uploaded a few apps... imagine the quality of the apps. If only they had spent that money on actually making the OS better. Imagine that.
- shawnz 8y ago
  > If only they had spent that money on actually making the OS better. Imagine that. What do you think they were trying to do? Apps are what make an OS good. Even if they caused 10,000 trash apps to be created and only 100 good ones, that's still 100 more good apps than they had before.
  - ktjfi 8y ago
    Not having a new toolkit every version would've been good. Allowing users of WP 7.* to update to 8, good too. Allowing all users of 8.1 to update to 10. Also their own apps were poor. I remember Skype for WP 8 was absolutely unusable. MS is composed of many teams and many of them clearly didn't give a shit about WP.
beering 8y ago
That's a little different, because there was guaranteed money for just creating an app. If Microsoft took a 0% cut, it wouldn't be that different for app spammers - they'd still have to get people to pay for the app at some point. Ultimately I don't think the difference between 15%, 5%, or 0% is that meaningful to an app developer. It's not going to turn your small number of Windows customers into a huge number, and 95% of a small dollar amount is not much less than 100% of a small dollar amount.
duskwuff 8y ago
The damage done by that campaign is still ongoing. The Microsoft Store is flooded with copycat apps, web site shells, and rebranded versions of open-source software. You can get a sense of the problem by browsing their "new and rising" feed: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/new-and-rising/apps/pc https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/new-and-rising/apps/pc

by yunyu 8y ago

ktjfi 8y ago

That was absolutely retarded. I remember they went around universities handing out Lumia 925 mobiles to anybody who uploaded a few apps... imagine the quality of the apps. If only they had spent that money on actually making the OS better. Imagine that.

shawnz 8y ago
> If only they had spent that money on actually making the OS better. Imagine that. What do you think they were trying to do? Apps are what make an OS good. Even if they caused 10,000 trash apps to be created and only 100 good ones, that's still 100 more good apps than they had before.
- ktjfi 8y ago
  Not having a new toolkit every version would've been good. Allowing users of WP 7.* to update to 8, good too. Allowing all users of 8.1 to update to 10. Also their own apps were poor. I remember Skype for WP 8 was absolutely unusable. MS is composed of many teams and many of them clearly didn't give a shit about WP.

beering 8y ago

That's a little different, because there was guaranteed money for just creating an app. If Microsoft took a 0% cut, it wouldn't be that different for app spammers - they'd still have to get people to pay for the app at some point. Ultimately I don't think the difference between 15%, 5%, or 0% is that meaningful to an app developer. It's not going to turn your small number of Windows customers into a huge number, and 95% of a small dollar amount is not much less than 100% of a small dollar amount.

duskwuff 8y ago

The damage done by that campaign is still ongoing. The Microsoft Store is flooded with copycat apps, web site shells, and rebranded versions of open-source software. You can get a sense of the problem by browsing their "new and rising" feed: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/new-and-rising/apps/pc https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/new-and-rising/apps/pc