Microsoft to merge Windows Phone and Windows 8 app stores

Microsoft is planning to merge both Windows Phone appstore and Windows appstore in to a single appstore according to reports. The move may not happen immediately but might happen sometime in 2014. The Verge is reporting that Terry Myerson, head of operating system group discussed in an internal company meeting. The unifications will come with the Windows 8.1 update to both Windows phone and Windows.

Microsoft is hinting at this merger from quite some time, as May Jo Foley reports that Terry Myerson said “We should have one set of developer APIs on all of our devices.  And all of the apps we bring to end users should be available on all of our devices.” at the company Financial Analyst meeting last week. To bring everything under one roof will give advantage to Microsoft. One set of developer APIs will also encourage developers to build apps for the platform. Currently the developer interest in Windows Phone is less compared to iOS or Android, this should change as the combined appstore becomes quite bigger and will attract more eyeballs.

But there are some issues with the approach, under the unifies appstore Microsoft will offer apps for Windows 8 desktops, Windows RT tablets and Windows Phone under one roof. But all apps wont work on all platforms, like Windows Phone apps wont work on Windows RT tablets, and some of the desktop apps wont work on Windows RT tablets. Windows RT runs on ARM architecture and desktops use Intel chips in most cases. The interoperability is key here if this has to be the way forward. It is not clear how Microsoft is going to handle this, but we will know it in the next few weeks or months.

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