I build web apps
Windows 8: home of native web apps
- Good news! If you build websites and web apps, you’re only one step away from building a Windows Store app.
- Web standards are native in Windows 8—apps are powered by most new web standards, including JavaScript with HTML/CSS.
- Common elements like canvas, SVG, video, audio, 2D transforms, transitions, and animations work just as they do in modern browsers.
- Use the code you’ve already written: Windows Store apps also support >iframe< elements and WebView controls. Build on your app with other coding languages like C#, VB, and C++ with XAML or DirectX 11.1.
What’s better than web apps? Making money with web apps.
- First things first: you keep 80% of revenue for sales of $25,000 USD in the Windows Store—more than any other platform.
- The Windows Store puts your app in more hands now—100 million licenses sold, in 200 markets worldwide.
- Every app can ship with a free trial option—a proven selling mechanic.
- Further monetize your app with ad support, in-app purchases, and more.
- Utilize Windows Azure’s infrastructure and let us take care of the backend. That way, you can focus on what you do best—making great apps.
Go beyond the browser to the future of app design
- In Windows 8, your apps will tap into its underlying performance benefits—from stability and hardware power to the Chakra JavaScript engine and next-generation user interfaces.
- Define how people will interact with technology for years to come with advanced user inputs like motion through the Kinect sensor, the Xbox 360 controller, voice, gyroscope, and GPS.
- This isn’t rocket science: you have access to all these things through the web languages you already know. Unless your app is used on a rocket, in which case it kind of is rocket science.
Take a step:
Success stories
See how independent developers have built successful apps for Windows 8, reaching hundreds of thousands of users. See why they’re saying, “Windows 8 is great for independent developers.”
Learn how Windows 8 gives Box the freedom to enable better ways for its customers to access and edit their files, share content, and stay connected with their teams.
Editor’s picks
We'll show you the basics of creating a Windows Store app experience using HTML and JavaScript, including the Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS).
This course shows you how to apply your .NET skills to both web and Windows apps—and the relationships between the two.
Leverage your existing tools to create and deploy applications without the hassle of managing infrastructure.
Perspectives
One of the simplest but most effective methods to improve performance in web applications is to cache images on the client. See how DotNetNuke did it.
Responsive Web design aims to provide an optimal viewing/consumption experience—easy reading and navigation with minimum resizing, panning, and scrolling —across the gamut of devices.
Come learn the best coding practices for maximizing the performance of your Windows Store app using HTML and JavaScript, including startup time, working set, and user-interface responsiveness.
This article will help you get started developing for Windows Phone 8 using PhoneGap.