Why is the Windows Store so bad ?

I've been using the modern MS ecosystem now for several years through Windows 8, then 8.1 and now 10.  And it is a mess..

 One of the things that folks buy into when they choose an OS today is the "ecosystem".  So to me that includes the devices, the OS itself and then the apps, music, movies, books, etc that you can access..   

 When compared to the offerings from Apple and Google, the MS Store experience in my opinion is just poor.   

 Here is why I say that.   

 Let's start with something simple.  Why can't you purchase the most popular apps for Windows via store ?   Meaning Office.  Whether it's the retail code or Office365 - you can't buy it from the store.  How can MS be so short sighted ? In fact I would even like to see Surface and Lumia devices in there.  Why should I have to go to 3 different places within MS to get what I need ?  With that said you can't buy Office for Mac from iTunes - and that doesn't make sense either.

 Next is updates and understanding what you have installed.  With Android or iOS - I get a notification that new versions of apps are available and when I go to update them, it shows me what updated, what version, and when that happened.  Pretty basic right ?  So why can't MS do that ?  Why do they have a hard time just showing the current version when you go to the store.  

 Finally and the most obvious is the lack of apps.  So while the good news with Windows is that it still allows side loading, the reality is that MS is loosing the app war.  

 There have been a number of recent posts regarding Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps and there are huge floods of news posts when one or two new apps show up.  

 UWP is part of the grand strategy around Windows 10 - One Kernel supporting phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and xbox and therefore in theory one app that can run across all.  It all sounds nice.... 

 But I think a lot of the bloggers and industry watchers miss the point.  And here's why...

 First - One of the major players will most likely never release Windows 10 UWP apps. Google.  There will never be a UWP Google Maps App or UWP YouTube app.  As it is today - you can certainly run Chrome versions of the apps within the Chrome browser.  But then again today you can't install Chrome for example on Windows 10 Mobile or xBox to my knowledge.  

 Second - the new apps today start in the mobile space not in the desktop space. The developers of those apps really don't even think about Windows as a target platform.  

 And while Windows 10 has had what many consider to be a very good launch with some 200M+ devices in 6 months - it pales in comparison to the 600-700M+ mobile devices that were sold in same period.   

 Add to that the fact that Microsoft Mobile device program has to be considered a massive failure from a market perspective and you can see why many new apps don't make it to Windows and most likely won't - even when Windows 10 hits 1B devices.  

 MS is projecting that Windows 10 will reach 1B devices by 2018.  In the same period there will be nearly 3B phones sold of which less than 40M will be Windows Mobile devices assuming Windows phone continues to sell at it's current pace of about 4-5M devices per quarter.  Why would any Mobile app developer care about developing for that.   Even with easy migration tools - why develop for 1% market share ?   

 Bottom line is that MS has lost in the mobile space and it will impact the company for years to come in the EUC space.  






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