Do you think people are blowing the windows 8 app count out of proportion.

[jhoff80]

Those aren't 2000 top-tier apps, they are plenty of mundane ones in the mix

Mundane is giving them way too much credit, honestly. There's maybe 50 or so quality ones so far, that's about it.

Really it's a LOT of the same type of crap in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Crappy RSS readers that pull data off sites they're not allowed to use the data from, soundboards, etc.

 

[stephen_az]

Mundane is giving them way too much credit, honestly. There's maybe 50 or so quality ones so far, that's about it.

Really it's a LOT of the same type of crap in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Crappy RSS readers that pull data off sites they're not allowed to use the data from, soundboards, etc.

As someone running the Windows 8 RTM, I can say there are a lot more than 50 quality apps in the store. In fact, many are surprisingly good given they are all still essentially beta releases for a new OS. That is not too bad for an OS that is still a month shy of actually being released, and a app store that has been open for a few weeks. I have also yet to hear of any major developers who have said they will absolutely not develop apps for the OS.

 

[stephen_az]

Personally, the thing that I view has been blown out of proportion is concern over how many apps are in a brand new app store that has only been open to developers for a month (or so), for an OS that is not even on the streets with more than a comparative handful of people. To me this seems like people looking for problems that do not exist, or looking to create an atmosphere of failure, before the OS is even out.

FWIW, if Windows RT arrives with (or is shortly joined by) versions of key Microsoft Office applications, it will start out with essential functionality that is light years ahead of any tablet currently on the market. Throw in a bona fide robust OS (as opposed to the bad joke that is Android) and it becomes the logical alternative to the iPad. Yes, I do own an Android tablet (a Transformer Prime) and I will happily dump the thing and its buggy OS at the earliest possible opportunity. People are currently exited about the fact that Android 4.1 is out for it and it has improved performance a bit to almost passable on a quad core tablet, and only broke a few functions and apps to date. Oh, there may be 500,000 apps but probably 499,000 are utter garbage. Saying that the Google Play Store provides great options for tablet users is like saying that you can find great options to furnish your apartment, house, etc., by visiting a landfill.

BTW, for those commenting about how essential it is to have phone apps on a tablet, you must not have actually seen many on an Android tablet. Google may be into it's third OS iteration since it unified design in 3.X, but many of the apps are still laughably scaled distortions of the way they appear on an Android phone. Many I have tried also still have the annoying habit of locking orientation to portrait for no better reason than no one has gotten around to fixing the issue. At least with the iPad, I don't see people doing spinning tablet contortion tricks as they move between apps.

 

[jhoff80]

As someone running the Windows 8 RTM, I can say there are a lot more than 50 quality apps in the store. In fact, many are surprisingly good given they are all still essentially beta releases for a new OS. That is not too bad for an OS that is still a month shy of actually being released, and a app store that has been open for a few weeks. I have also yet to hear of any major developers who have said they will absolutely not develop apps for the OS.

As someone who is also running the Windows 8 RTM, you and I clearly have different ideas of what's quality. (Though admittedly, I wasn't factoring games into that number).

 

[Joelist]

Yes number of apps is way overhyped, and MS and company should actually be doing advertising to counter it. Such ads would be easy. Just focus on the fact that many scenarios that in Android and especially iOS (where the app usually costs money) require an app do not in Windows Phone 8 because the functionality is already there.

- Productivity? WP8 has Office and the others will set you back at least $10 if not more for a document reader suite (and even then your edit ability is partly crippled).

- Facebook? Others need an app and WP8 has it built in.

- Twitter? Others need an app and WP8 has it built in.

- Instagram? App available and rumors that the functionality will be added as built in also

- Skype? Built in so it seems.

That is the angle I would take. A lot of areas where they say "there's an app for that" WP says "why bother with an app?".

 

[Joelist]

Oh, and Windows RT ships with full Office included. So in the tablet world that puts MS instantly way ahead of the others.

 

[cckgz4]

I think this whole "era" have been blown out of proportion

 

[1jaxstate1]

Does apple and google not have "office" type apps? I know MS office is king though.

Oh, and Windows RT ships with full Office included. So in the tablet world that puts MS instantly way ahead of the others.

 

[Joelist]

Does apple and google not have "office" type apps? I know MS office is king though.

Nope. You have to buy them. They have pretty poor "reader" abilities that typically work through the browser.

 

[dogfish54]

The apps aren't great and are a little confusing.

I think one of the big issues is that we are all trying to run Windows 8 or Windows 7 or earlier hardware.

 

[1jaxstate1]

Ok, i know i use to use open office office on my Macs, and I just couldn't get use to it. I thought there was an improvement since then

Nope. You have to buy them. They have pretty poor "reader" abilities that typically work through the browser.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Ok, i know i use to use open office office on my Macs, and I just couldn't get use to it. I thought there was an improvement since then

I use LibreOffice in Linux, and I've found it completely compatible with MS Office.

The confusion is that some folks are talking about iOS and Android, and comparing it to Windows Phone.

The OP is referring to desktop Windows 8. Most users would not need to buy MS Office. LibreOffice and openOffice would be just fine on a desktop computer.

I installed LibreOffice in Windows too, even though I own MS Office Professional 2010.