Microsoft provided further proof this week that the next iteration of its Windows operating system will include an app store.
In a post on the new Windows 8 blog, Microsoft's president of Windows, Steven Sinofsky, listed about three dozens teams working on the revamped OS. Second on the list was "App Store," suggesting that Windows 8 will include an app market similar to Apple's Mac App Store.
Also listed was "Applications and Media Experience" and "App Experience."
Sinofsky didn't go into any detail about what a Windows 8 app store might look like or offer, except to say that "many of the teams listed ... describe features or areas that you are familiar with or that you can probably figure out based on the name."
The Windows 8 workflow, however, is organized into "feature teams," he said, one of which is the app store effort. "Each feature team has anywhere from 25-40 developers, plus test and program management, all working together," Sinofsky said. There are also seven larger teams: fundamentals, devices and networking, core OS, developer experience, user experience, Web services, and engineering, he said.
Sinofsky dismissed the idea that the Windows team is too large. "Folks want new things, and changes to existing things; they want features to be available globally, to be accessible, and to be super high quality; they want things to work on existing hardware, and to take advantage of the latest new hardware," he wrote. "Our job is to get as much done in as short a time as possible, at a very significant scale. That's all a pretty significant engineering effort."
Microsoft launched its Windows 8 blog earlier this week and in his first post, Sinofsky acknowledged that there has been frustration over "how little we've communicated so far about Windows 8." The blog will apparently be a means to keep users more informed about Windows 8 development.
Expect more details at September's BUILD conference in Anaheim, California.
Sinofsky first showed off Windows 8 at June's D9 conference. At the time, PCMag had a few burning questions about the OS, including whether or not it would include an app store. For more, see 9 Questions About Windows 8 and the slideshow below.