I think the generous free trial could allow them to raise the floor even higher than $1.49.<p>Part of the reason I won't buy expensive apps on iPhone is because there's no recourse if they're terrible. Google's 15 minute trial period is a start, but for some games that's not long enough to download the content they need to run.<p>It will also motivate developers to create apps with more than 7 days worth of value. How many people will actually keep a fart app or a game with 2 levels for more than 7 days?<p>I think this will be an interesting experiment and look forward to seeing what effect is has on the quality and quantity of available applications.
Relevant post on MSDN: <a href="https://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsstore/archive/2012/07/20/making-money-with-your-apps-through-the-windows-store.aspx?Redirected=true" rel="nofollow">https://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsstore/archive/2012/07/20/mak...</a><p>The $1.49 may not be very far from $0.99 in real terms, but I feel it significantly increases resistance. I'd be much more willing to spend $0.99 for an app I want to check out than $1.49. Wonder what the rationale behind that figure is.
One serious problem with the Windows 8 Store. It will only be for Metro Style apps, which require the complete stack to be on the the "Metro" .net stack.<p>I have an app that I was looking to port to Windows 8. It's written in .NET, and uses good architecture so that (I thought) all I would need to do is hook-up the UI. Nope. I can't just reference the core dll and be off. That dll has to be a "Metro class library." Now, I apparently have to maintain two versions of my core library in addition to the UI layers. This is a problem.
1.49 is there to ensure no crappy apps. after all in case of MS trials are possible meaning you no longer need to buy crappy apps just because the description sounds good.