Microsoft opens an Office store for Office 2013
For a peek into the future, check out the Office Store now in beta.
Office 2013 has a new form of plug-in based on HTML5 and web technologies with the Office Store intended as a ‘one stop’ place to get these addons.
As you might expect, there’s only a few dozen items available for the moment and they are all free.
It’s mostly window shopping at the moment because all the offerings require a beta software or service (Office 2013, SharePoint 2013 or Outlook Web App).
Down the line Microsoft hopes for many more apps and paid ones as well. It’s a conscious copy of the app stores by Apple, Android and the Windows 8 Store.
While Microsoft will push the convenience to customers as a benefit, the company is hoping to create a new income stream. At the moment, Office add-ins are sold directly but with the Office store Microsoft will be able to grab a percentage of many sales.
It will also be interesting to see the rules Microsoft puts in place to get access to the Office Store. Will they take the highly regulated path like Apple or the lighter touch favored in the Android world? What will Microsoft do about a submitted app that’s considered in some way ‘anti-Microsoft’?
