Kevin Ashley works at Microsoft as an architect and technical evangelist.
This is simply my account of what an individual developer can achieve in Windows ecosystem in just about 6 months.
What? Seriously? How are you an individual developer if you work for Microsoft? This is beyond astroturfing, but surprisingly enough he does disclose that he works for MS.
At any rate, for anybody taking this as advice and making career choices off the idea of $30,000 a month for 6 months work, I have this great bridge I can sell you that you could easily make $30,000 a day just by charging drivers $1 each...
If I were making $30,000 a month on an app, I'd be pretty excited too.
The interesting point that I took away from this is it is not the size of the audience that matters but the size of the audience divided by the number of apps. He clearly has been successful because he was a first mover in an developing app store and that is interesting data.
It certainly challenges the "iOS first" mantra at a lot of startups.
The difference between a 30,000 dollar a day app and a 0 dollar a day app on ANY app store (Google Play, App Store, App World, or whatever) is PROMOTION.
If you promote ANYTHING you can get 30k a day. If you don't, you're app could be the best in the world and likely wont get anywhere.
I might have cared more about the Windows 8 app store if it wasn't $100/year, didn't require individual app approval, and didn't block sideloading entirely so I cannot QA or give my apps to friends without also giving them the source code.
Plus, frankly, the app store is just horrible. Like the ugliest nastiest thing I've ever seen. I'm looking at it right now, scrolling to the side and only seeing like ten apps.
I then go into a category and BOOM every app they have listed in a giant table. No inter-category hero panel, no popularity list, just a giant list of apps.
It was like this when W8 launched too but I just thought "wow that's shocking bad, but they'll fix it up." But they haven't! They haven't done a damn thing.
I used to say iTunes was bad, but iTunes is a thing of beauty compared to Microsoft's store.
As far as I can tell, there is no catch, other than they hope you'll produce software for the Windows ecosystem (but there is no penalty if you don't). You'll probably also continue using MS tools afterwards (but this is of course not mandatory either).
As for the requirements, you have to have a company, small enough when entering the program (can outgrow the entry requirements during the three years and still stay in), and it has to produce software (service or packaged).
I know everyone hates windows here, but people should probably realize that its a legit ecosystem. Everyone says "Oh it only has 4% market share, it has bad adoption". 4% of the PC market is 120m PCs. Think about that for a second: even if you got 1$ from 1% of that market, you'd still have 900~k before taxes in your bank account. Do I think Windows 8 is the best operating system in the world? Of course not, it does has its flaws, but is it the worst? No. Its completely usable, and its a giant step forward compared to where they (Microsoft) were a few years ago. Give it a few years, and I think it will certainly be a viable options, and I think it may even be a pleasure to develop on.
"... people should probably realize that its a legit ecosystem."
Windows is a very legit ecosystem, but, I think, mostly everyone who participates here is "skating where the puck's going, not where it's been".
Also, the author of the post works for Microsoft, so this posting is unfortunately more advertisement than informational. For example, the author states that "Windows 8 is a fantastic operating system ...", "Windows is very developer friendly.", and "... visit a Microsoft Store, check out some new models available there.".
I have a WP8 (please hold your applause). Its an awesome phone and a refreshing break from the iPhone (which seems kind of dated with it's gaudy skeudomorphic icons).
The transition wasn't as jarring as a thought it'd be either. I've been able to find replacements/substitutes for every app.
That said, I see opportunities for app developers here. I'd like to see more diversity. The freedom to purchase on the phone with one click using PayPal (I know, I know) also makes it even easier to support developers on this platform
This is simply my account of what an individual developer can achieve in Windows ecosystem in just about 6 months.
What? Seriously? How are you an individual developer if you work for Microsoft? This is beyond astroturfing, but surprisingly enough he does disclose that he works for MS.
At any rate, for anybody taking this as advice and making career choices off the idea of $30,000 a month for 6 months work, I have this great bridge I can sell you that you could easily make $30,000 a day just by charging drivers $1 each...