In September, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made a surprise visit to San Fransisco-based technology startup accelerator RocketSpace. The appearance was tied into a new partnership between the two companies that was designed to help developers make apps for Windows 8.
Today, the official Windows Store blog revealed more information about this new effort, called Windows Store App Labs. The blog states:
At our kick-off event in San Francisco, we had a full house with over 120 entrepreneurs, designers and developers in attendance. Partners such as Flixster, Wikipedia and Appfluence joined to demo their apps, talk about why they built for Windows 8 and the support offered by Microsoft. In particular, they underscored the ease of building apps using HTML5 and JavaScript while still getting the power and performance of a native app. Flixster mentioned that they were able to build their app in just a few weeks and Wikipedia noted that their app started with one person building the first version within a few weeks.
There are 30 locations around the world where Microsoft and RocketSpace have established Windows Store App Labs, including New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Berlin, Shanghai, and Bangalore. Interested app developers can check to see if there is a location near them and, if that is indeed the case, sign up for a four hour session.
Source: Windows Store blog | Image via Microsoft