What Is an App Store… and Why Does Windows 8 Need One?

While many associate app stores with Apple, the truth is that Microsoft got there years earlier with offerings such as Xbox LIVE Marketplace, Windows Marketplace, and other services. But Apple’s begrudging entry into the app store space–remember, Apple originally wanted to keep the iPhone a closed system and only caved because of overwhelming customer pressure–ignited a revolution. To give the Cupertino consumer electronics giant credit where credit is due, Apple got its app store right, establishing rules for app submissions, purchasing, and management that are now essentially standard across the industry. Today, you can’t launch or maintain a mobile or computing platform of any kind without offering an associated app store as well.

The Music and Video Marketplaces were previously collectively branded as the Zune Marketplace. With Windows 8, that brand is being phased out and is being replaced by the Xbox brand instead.

The app store in Windows 8 is called Windows Store, and it’s modeled largely on the Windows Phone Marketplace, which Microsoft launched alongside its smartphone platform in 2010. And as with its Windows Phone offering, Windows Store is just part of a wider ecosystem of services that includes other online stores as well. For example, Windows 8 users may be interested in Microsoft’s Xbox Music and Xbox Video Marketplaces as well.