One Dev, At Least, Is Doing Great On Windows 8
techcrunch.comDisclosure: I just started working for Microsoft, but I think this would be my opinion anyway.
The Windows 8 app market looks still pretty much wide-open. Nevertheless, we can expect with some confidence that a few months from now there will be approximately a gazillion Windows 8 users looking for apps.
IMHO, this would be a really great time to have a few nice $2 game on that app store.
Background: I'm a developer.
Operating systems I use: Mac OS X, Linux (desktop and server)
Mobile Platforms I use: iPhone and Android
Operating systems I don't use: Windows 8
Mobile Platforms I don't use: WinMo8
I'm not buying a machine for Windows 8, a windows mobile phone, and a copy of Visual Studio 2012 ($2-3k++ outlay) for a chance at selling a $2 game to an unvalidated marketplace.
I'd have to sell 1,000 copies just to break-even on the hardware, let alone my time.
I'd be more interested if Microsoft had some sort of incentive program that included the dev machine, compiler, and mobile phone for testing. If they do, please link it.
Nah, you can use the VS Express Edition on a VM hosted on Azure or Amazon to develop Windows 8 store apps for next-to-nothing. There's still some kind of fee to register as an app developer though.
I doubt anyone's going to beg you to jump on it, just sayin' IMHO even the most pessimistic projections would still indicate it's going to be a pretty freaking huge app market.
>I doubt anyone's going to beg you to jump on it
Noooooot exactly what I'm hearing from people that do popular mobile apps...
Right, I was talking about you in particular.
People that do popular mobile apps are usually far more concerned with what other people will be using 6 months from now than what they personally prefer to use right now.
I know 0 Windows Mobile 8 users...this is including other developers who own multiple phones for testing.
Note that the article (and I) have been talking about Windows 8 store apps, which is a different thing than Windows Phone 8.