Microsoft to combine Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 app stores into one

Microsoft’s plans for converging all of its various digital storefronts into one are becoming more apparent as the days go by. According to The Verge, sources familiar with the company’s plans have revealed that Microsoft will be making a single app store for the next Windows Phone and Windows update.

The move was apparently confirmed by the head of Microsoft’s Operating Systems group Terry Myerson in an internal company meeting. The meeting was supposedly attended by thousands of Microsoft employees. The updates, expected to be Windows Phone 8.1 and a special update to Windows 8.1, are expected to be available in 2014.

It is still quite unclear how the single Windows Store will work. There is a chance that the company might make Windows Phone apps compatible with Windows 8 and vice versa in the new store, or it could take the approach that both Apple and Google have taken with the App Store and Google Play respectively, where there can be either platform-exclusive apps or universal apps that work on both tablets and smartphones.

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Next year, this might also start showing Windows Phone 8 apps

Earlier, Myerson had talked about how the future of Windows RT is in phablets. Myerson said this in response to the question on a lot of people’s minds: why is Microsoft sticking to RT and ARM, especially when Intel’s Bay Trail and Haswell are miles ahead? He answered: “Windows RT was our first ARM tablet. And as phones extend into tablets, expect us to see many more ARM tablets, Windows ARM tablets in the future.”

While Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT use Windows NT as the core, they are both ARM-based operating systems. The company seems intent on the convergence of the paths of both of these operating systems eventually. This essentially means that when we eventually see a 5-inch Windows device, it won’t fall under the Windows Phone label. Instead, it will be Windows RT.

To confirm the steps of the company towards the convergence of both of the operating systems, Myerson said, "(W)e really should have one silicon interface for all of our devices. We should have one set of developer APIs on all of our devices. And all of the apps we bring to end users should be available on all of our devices."