Microsoft download 'œStore' opens in US, no sign for Australia yet

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 16 November 2008 17:14

Opinion and Analysis

In addition, Chow advises that “you always have the option of copying the downloaded products to physical media if you want to have it available longer than the mainstream support lifetime.”

Chow then re-explains the benefits of downloading software while mentioning that “your product key is stored in your Microsoft Store Account alongside your purchase history so you can use it to re-install your software at any time.”

He also re-emphasises the environmental benefits although as noted this is old, old news for anyone that has ever downloaded anything, which is pretty much every Internet user on the planet.

Chow also goes on to note that many new laptops and netbooks come without a CD/DVD drive, making downloads of official Microsoft software that much more useful.

It then turns out that Chow was part of the team that built and launched the Microsoft Store, and while he seems very excited, especially by the “short” release time between the idea and the delivery of the store, Microsoft must surely be the last company on the planet to be getting excited about e-commerce.

Part of the “thrill” that Chow experienced was figuring out “supply chain, payment processing, taxes and even how to optimize bit delivery for ESD downloads” and he says it was a “truly humbling learning experience.”

If the economic downturn hasn’t sucked your wallet dry, you live in one of the four countries the store is available and you have a hankering to buy some Microsoft software online, the Microsoft store awaits!

I just hope that you’re with an ISP that gives a generous download limit each month, because some of Microsoft’s software is hundreds of megabytes, if not gigabytes in size.

So, welcome to the world of e-commerce and electronic catalogs, Microsoft. When will you launch the Australian version? :-)