We’ve had a few conversations on this topic before, I think. But since the forum search is a mess, I’ll just be lazy and start my own thread now 
So, I’ve got a few fairly well sellings apps for the Mac (mainly Find Any File and iClip). I am now contemplating selling them also on Windows. I know a few forum participants have starting selling their apps on the Windows store.
What is your experience so far? Do they sell by themselves as well as on the Mac Store, or do you need to do more marketing (if so, how)?
And does it help if people know your app from the Mac, in order to find new customers on Windows, or are you starting from zero there?
Is this specific to the Windows Store or is it a general Windows marketing question?
(I’d just like to know before I go into a writeup)
Well, I was thinking of the Windows Store because I’d think that might work better than just offering it on my own website. I’d expect the Win Store would enable exposure. I’m a programmer, not a marketer, so I suck at that part
But if you have experience/advice on how it works outside the Win Store, I’d be interested as well.
I sell mostly the same apps on the MAS, the Windows Store, and the Amazon App Store. As well as my own sites, of course.
The Windows Store does require some additional promotion. Fortunately, Microsoft provides an affordable banner promotion which, in my experience, works fairly well. At this time, the Windows Store represents about half of the MAS for me.
Don’t forget that the Windows Store will only sell Desktop apps wrapped in Desktop App Converter to Windows 10 users. The park is much smaller than Mac.
The Amazon App Store seems to sell by itself for Windows apps. At any rate, there is no promotion for Mac and PC apps, just for Android. An interesting aspect of the Amazon App Store is that it sells to all versions of Windows, so I can tap in the large Windows 7 installed base. I no longer have XP and Vista products.
I have not yet received my first payment, but statistics seem to indicate a somewhat more vivid store than the Windows Store. Also, until now, only the Windows apps were online there. They have just started to put my Mac apps online.
IMHO we’re using the best tool for x-plat, and this year our new projects are going to be designed to be x-plat. Most of our applications are too tied into the macOS APIs to be ported (until I learn a lot more about Windows API). So for this fact alone I’ve been trying to use more pure Xojo than declares.
I personally would start by taking your existing project, make sure that the declares are wrapped in compiler conditions and then try it and see what needs to be changed to make it work to some degree on Windows.
When designing a new project it’s much easier and I would suggest keeping the logic separate from the window, this way you can have different windows (with different design elements) for different OSes.
I just checked my sales on Amazon since January 17. The amount of Windows sales is approximately equivalent to what I get in the MAS.
Interesting, thanks Michel
Never looked at Amazon App Store.
Michel, can you give some pointers how to get apps onto the Amazon App Store?
It seems they use an API you have to use? Setting up an app is not easy art first sight.
Just after reading Michel’s post I tried my luck at the Amazon App Store (trying to post the windows version of my excel2vCard - app).
The process is supposed to be straightforward - go to https://developer.amazon.com/ , create an developer account and follow the instructions given. But unfortunately Amazons site kept acting up on me, server errors (500) galore and I had to enter my data over and over again, because somehow it got lost. Gave up in the end and informed them about the issues. But I will try again.
Amazon has been the target of malevolent hackers for a week now. Just try one hour or two later at https://developer.amazon.com/
Signing up is no different than the MAS or the Windows Store. Provide information about your company or yourself, provide tax information (does not require VAT number for Europeans).
Then create an app, and provide title, description, pictures, and finally binary.
For PC, an installer is required. For Mac, a DMG is required (contrary to what the form suggests in upload tips that talks about .app).
Reviewers are much less picky than in the MAS or the WS. But a bit slower, especially for Mac apps. PC apps are in general live after a couple days.
A very nice thing is that prices can be set without tax included. So you don’t get shaved of the VAT and local tax.
About Amazin store:
Can I use my own protection scheme? If yes, how can I provide license keys?
[quote=321358:@Christoph De Vocht]About Amazin store:
Can I use my own protection scheme? If yes, how can I provide license keys?[/quote]
The answer is yes. When you define your product, you have three choices :
[quote]Through what delivery method do customers receive this product? * Cannot be changed once Step 1 is saved.
- Download Only - Customers download the binary you provide. There is only one binary per submission.
- Download with Key - Customers download the binary and product key(s) with the redemption instructions you provide. There is only one binary per submission.
- Key/Online Game Code - Customers receive the product key(s) with the redemption instructions you provide.[/quote]