Microsoft Office 2010 is the first desktop app in Windows 8 Store

Microsoft’s Office 2010 will be the first Microsoft desktop application to be sold in the Windows 8 app store. The store will offer both desktop and Metro versions of the Office suite down the line. Just like other app store, users can download both free versions of the apps to try it out and then decide to buy them later. Lance Whitney of CNET writes, “I'd like to see not just commercial and paid applications but a wide variety of shareware and freeware utilities devoted to Windows users -- in other words, something like Apple's Mac app store. Of course, it's likely to take Microsoft time to fully ramp up the store. But a Windows Store with a full array of products and utilities would be of tremendous value to users. And beyond kicking in its own revenue, the store could help Microsoft drive adoption of Windows 8.”

The new look!

Earlier on this year, we saw popular Android and iOS games, like Cut the Rope and Evernote make their way to the Windows store. Cut the Rope was ported to the Windows 8 platform not by its developer, ZeptoLab, but by a small development design firm, PixelLab. Furthermore, the app wasn't ported to Windows 8, but Microsoft put the two firms in touch with each other and PixelLab coverted CTR's C++ code into HTML5 and JavaScript. The process took 10 days and the app was then ready for an Internet Explorer 9 port. The Evernote on Windows 8 is not a full application, yet.  The app on Windows 8 only supports text notes. However, it does store these notes and share them across other devices that you may have Evernote installed on. You can view other elements, like images that you've placed in text notes from other devices through the app on Windows 8, but you cannot actually place these elements into the text notes via the Windows 8 app, yet.

Cbazaar, an Indian ethnic wear retailer have also got their application in the Windows 8 App Store and are also claiming to be the first e-commerce application in the Windows 8 store. The app is available for free and can be found in the "shopping" section of the store. To fit in with the Windows 8 tile theme, the metro UI, the app, too has added large tiles for navigation. The app provides the choices of Indian ethnic wear that their website displays plus more designs that were made specifically for the app. Windows 8 is all set to launch somewhere in the Q4 of this year, so by that time, expect a lot more apps to receive the Metro treatment.