Windows Store: Drumming Up App Support
No tablet or smartphone platform can truly succeed without active participation from third-party developers. That was one of the principal issues that HP had with webOS, and it’s precisely the reason why Microsoft released this early build of Windows.
There are a few catches to Microsoft’s new developer campaign. Full-screen Metro apps can be built in either in C#/XAML or HTML5/JavaScript, but you must use the new WinRT API. Apps written accordingly will run on any Windows 8 machine (x86 or ARM).
Silverlight, for example, is still supported for older applications, but it's not part of the new API. Microsoft did demonstrate at the BUILD conference, however, that a conversion to Metro could be seamless. If you’re a developer, think about reusing 90% of your old code. The missing component is the UI you have to design from scratch to make an app “Metro-y.”
ARM devices will be restricted to using the WinRT API. This is intended to address power consumption issues with resource-intensive programs like Photoshop. Microsoft intends to enforce this policy by forcing ARM-based devices to install applications through the Windows Store, which is currently unavailable in the pre-beta version of Windows 8.
If you’re a developer and want more information on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, we highly recommend reading David Burela’s blog posts on BUILD.