The Launch of the New Zealand Windows 8 Store and the First Set of Kiwi Apps

I am really proud to have worked with the following pioneering Kiwi’s over the last few month to create a set of 7 NZ made launch applications for Windows 8. It is very encouraging to see four of them in the top 12 apps in the NZ Windows 8 Store!

Thank You!

Atta Elayyan
Ben Ataya
Ben Gracewood
Gus Pickering
Jacky Tay
James Brown
Keith Patton
Mark Baldwin
Max Flanigan
Michael Choeung
Nigel Sampson
Paul Bartrum
Reuben Bijl
Sam Langley
Simon Young
Thivy Ruthra
Toby Vincent
Umesh Sripad
Zach Hitchcock

I made a couple of YouTube Videos to Show the New Zealand apps working together, Video 1

A Chinese Tale told by NZ Windows 8 Apps

Introducing the apps:

TweeTRO

NZ Herald

Trade Me Toolbox (With Live Tiles and Push Notifications)

Also Ben Gracewood talks about his new role as Metro Practice lead for Marker Metro.

NZ Cricket (With Live Tiles and Push Notifications in time for the West Indies tour late June)

Flicks

Menu Mania - App Link

Ancient Frog

Also check out these other apps made in New Zealand:

Sports	ESPN Cricinfo	Stunning visual design and readability on the articles - a ground breaking HTML5 app
Music & Video	7digital Music Store	7digital on Windows 8, uses all the charms (apart from devices), background music, streaming
Games	Jelly Jigsaw	Spend the money and create a Jelly puzzle with your own photos from Facebook!
Education	Bubbly Kids	Great educational 5 in 1 app for pre-school kids

The recent Tech Ed keynote showcases local apps. There is also a wealth of content available from the Building apps for Windows track at Tech Ed where you can hear first-hand from the developers who have built these early Windows apps. Also from a business perspective, Windows 8 Line of Business apps are coming for Plunket and SeaLord.

Building Your App

Idea: If you are stuck on an idea for an app take a look at Humanising Data our government open data competition.

Take a look at the category inspiration and the case studies or just browse the Windows Store for inspiration.

Design: Ensure you understand the design language – Tech Ed Session.

Build: Your first stop should be the Developing great apps for Windows page.

Certification: ensure you understand the certification process and test your app with the Windows App Certification Kit.

The Windows Store

The Windows Store is open to you to sell your app today at a cost of $70 NZD per year. All eligible MSDN subscribers receive a free, one-year Windows Store developer account as part of their MSDN benefits. We have a program for students—DreamSpark—that similarly waives the subscription fee.

As Atta said in the developer video. Their Tweetro app has had more than 100,000 downloads and Windows 8 hasn’t even launched yet! First mover advantage means now is the time for you to go and make your millions.

With over a billion PCs in use, Windows represents the largest platform in the world. This unprecedented reach, combined with the fact that any PC running Windows 7 can run Windows 8, presents you with a tremendous revenue opportunity. The Windows Store is your means to take full advantage of this opportunity through its support of flexible business models, markets, and languages.