Windows 8 Private Market Place

The Private Market Place will be a place on the Windows 8 app store that allows a Windows 8 app to be distributed only to private customers.

With the push for apps available through App stores, some companies, may have a split feeling about how they want to deliver their apps to their customers. For example, take application that have been designed for their own employees. Now further take the view that the company may want to limit the access via a private marketplace notion.

Let’s say that a company wants to make available to its own employees a sales report of current and potential customers app developed by a company’s IT department. Then the IT staff may want to distribute test and final versions of this app to all their Windows 8 users but don’t want those not working at the company to see it in the Store. This is where “private marketplaces” come into play.

Earlier this year, Microsoft enabled private marketplace functionality for Windows Phone “Mango.”  Given that functionality, maybe Microsoft is planning to offer a similar path to business users for their Windows 8 Metro-style apps.

But watch it! Will the same Windows 8 App store functionality be available to non-Metro style apps? Maybe, but maybe not. Microsoft hasn’t given an answer to that, and it may be that they are still up in the air about what the Windows 8 App store will really be about. That, however, revolves around the metro-style app structure. The Windows 8 App store will carry it but not other styles.

Here is Microsoft’s current take:

“Apps listed in the Store are visible to all Windows 8 users, so enterprise apps can be offered in the Store, just like any other Metro style app. However, we also offer support for enterprises that want direct control over the deployment of Metro style apps.

“Enterprises can choose to limit access to the Windows Store catalog by their employees, or allow access but restrict certain apps. In addition, enterprises can choose to deploy Metro style apps directly to PCs, without going through the Store infrastructure. For Windows 8 Beta, IT administrators can use group policy to permit Metro style app installations, as long as the apps are signed by trusted publishers and the machines are joined to the domain. Then the IT admin can use (P)owershell commandlets to manage those Metro-style apps on Windows 8….

“This deployment flexibility ensures that employees have software on the devices they prefer while IT can continue to manage software payloads based on their company’s needs and regulation.”

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