Microsoft Working On Its Own App Store 195
CWmike writes "Microsoft is working on a software distribution scheme along the lines of Apple's iPhone App Store, CEO Steve Ballmer said yesterday at a developer's conference in Sydney, Australia. 'There's not much money being made, but the general concept of giving developers a way not only to get their code distributed, but to really get visibility for the code, is a good idea,' Ballmer said. Ballmer hinted that something similar would be coming soon from Microsoft. While he said Micrsoft was not ready to detail the works in progress, he said '... fear not, we're hard at work, and you'll see some of the benefits [of that] with some of the concepts, particularly Facebook's.'"
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:monkey see monkey do (Score:5, Informative)
You do realize people have been buying music and software from Microsoft Online services for over 7 years right?
Really? MSN Music launched in 2004, a year after the iTunes Music Store (2003), and it is the first online music store from Microsoft that I can find any references to. I'm aware that Microsoft has had an online software store for a few years, although I've yet to encounter anyone who's bought anything from it (and any non-geeks who are even aware of its existence).
Re:monkey see monkey do (Score:3, Informative)
Well now... (Score:1, Informative)
Everyone likes to bash Apple for having a desktop GUI and at the same time claim that Windows is merely a copy, but, a more careful reading has to give Microsoft a few firsts.
Microsoft had a component object model first in OLE/COM. Active X controls are an extension to this for sure, and COM doesn't look as good when your PC is always on a LAN...but that nifty little trick of having an Excel document embedded inside of a word document required a fairly divergent set of technologies that Apple and IBM worked on but never really got together and Microsoft simply did. OLE structured storage comes to mind. Come to think of it, both GNOME and KDE have rich object models on the desktop largely inspired by the COMish nature of Windows shell, but, you don't see pervasive Shell Extensions on Linux in the way you do with Windows partially because there are, well both KDE and Gnome.
Microsoft was the first to have a pre-emptive GUI. OS/2 was mired in SIQ even through Warp and Mac could lock up for any reason, but Windows NT Daytona was rock solid, and, in historic perspectives, was the most logical OS Microsoft would ever release.
Microsoft's START bar got it right. Apple finder and the desktop thing was ok for its time, but really, Microsoft's START bar is actually the thing that we find ourselves using. My Gnome start bar is essentially the MS START bar with some doodads, as is the Mac OS/X bar.
First fully programmable DOM in a browser. Oh, now that's a biggy.. it was this feature of IE 4.0 that killed Netscape more so than anything else.
And, as of right now, no one has code completion and refactoring as well as is done inside of Visual Studio for C#. To this date, no one has made a desktop database that put together reporting, forms and database the way MS Access has.
Re:The MS hate on Slashdot is hilarious (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The MS hate on Slashdot is hilarious (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No supprise here (Score:2, Informative)
I'm pretty sure Apple invented the iPod.
That was Kane Kramer. http://gizmodo.com/5046463/apple-admits-british-man-invented-ipod-in-1979-uses-him-to-win-patent-lawsuit [gizmodo.com]
Re:The MS hate on Slashdot is hilarious (Score:3, Informative)
The poster compared it to apt-get. Apt get allows for updates and upgrading as well as checking for dependencies. I repeat... how is an app store like a repository???
Never once has [iphone app store] supplied the source code for me.
How did the source code requirement suddenly crop up? It wasn't in GGP. Source is not necessary for an MS Windows app store/repo anyway. If this keeps my family members from downloading crap from stupidweatherbugspywareriddledsite.example.com , I think it's a good thing.
Re:monkey see monkey do (Score:3, Informative)
your point would be...
Just what you took time to demonstrate in your post, Microsoft was doing all of this crap before Apple.
Therefore, the comment "Monkey see, Monkey do", would better be suited at an attack at Apple, as they are the 'me too' once again. Of course their fanbois wouldn't know this, and probably still think they invented everything, as long as Apple marketing tries to make people believe it.
And yes Apple INTENTIONALLY tries to create this perception. When they run ads about the first 64bit computer - which the UK made they stop saying (and OS X still isn't even 64bit), and then use their marketing strength of cool to run ads about the iPhone or iPod 'revolutions' and then describe features that have been available for years.
But since the basic consumers and Apple fans didn't realize it existed before, they run to buy it and give Apple all the technology credit for crap they ripped off. Yes even the iPhone is a sad knock off. It looks like a rotary dial phone compared to phones in Japan and is very featureless compared to basic Windows Mobile devices people had been using for years. Can anyone say freaking voice dialing even, who in their right mind would release a bluetooth enabled device without any voice features? (And don't say iPhone=multi-touch, it is even a rip off, google TED multi-touch, let alone the Tablet PCs that were multi-touch enabled years before.)
I am tired of the myth of Microsoft is copying Apple crap, especially when Apple vampires the entire industry, puts a cute logo on it and people think it is the gold standard. Some of us had multi-GB MP3 players in the mid 90s, and phones with touch interfaces, real 3G, and even an OS running our own applications for almost 4 years before the iPhone.
The only thing Apple has done well is offer few choices and lock users into their products further, so people that are dumb as rocks feel 'comfortable' about using the product and don't have to worry about even which store to buy the song from.
So ya, Monkey See, Monkey Do - Apple keep up the rip offs for as long as people are stupid enough to believe your marketing, a time will come when people find out they were duped.