Most of the Windows 8 stuff -- including this policy -- makes Microsoft look like a Johnny-come-lately, taking Apple's lead, with the only difference (though it

Most of the Windows 8 stuff -- including this policy -- makes Microsoft look like a Johnny-come-lately, taking Apple's lead, with the only difference (though it's a pretty big one) being that their two operating system paradigms bleed into each other. The policy you mention is the exact policy Apple has if you want to deploy to any iOS device, except with Apple you can provision up to 100 devices per year on your account. I assume a big reason would be that Microsoft wants to make sure people can only obtain Windows Phone 8 apps through their store, and if it were possible to install an app on your device without a developer account, or if it were free to do so (and therefore more anonymous), pirating apps would be an easier task. But that's only a conjecture. On iOS I've come to accept this kind of policy as an acceptable tradeoff for what the ecosystem provides.