Tesco and VEVO land in the Windows Store as Microsoft preps for BUILD and Windows 8.1

Microsoft’s Build developer conference is next week, but the company today announced a new round of applications for the Windows 8 platform. The timing isn’t curious: Microsoft wants plaudits for this new round of third-party support, and can’t let the news be buried amongst the noise of its coming conference.

At Build this year we can expect a deluge of Windows news on the platform side of things, as Microsoft will release the beta of Windows 8.1, the next generation of its operating system platform. However, work continues apace inside of the firm concerning the support it has cultivated for the newly app-store’d Windows operating system. To wit, today’s news.

There are two new key applications out now for Windows 8: Tesco, and Vevo. Also out today are Time Out, social DJ service edjing, and video sharing site Vyclone. The former pair, however, are the meat of today’s news.

Tesco’s application is for the UK, so if you are in Bavaria, or San Francisco, I apologize. Not that we externals would have high use of the app, but there are always whiners. The new app, in Microsoft’s verbiage, offers “the best online shopping experience on the platform.” Wherever you shop, the Tesco Windows 8 app wants to be your bestie. Consumer reaction will be the arbiter of its success.

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Vevo’s arrival on Windows 8 is a win for its younger demographics. If you fuse Vevo’s new play-for-you channel, and a tablet, you are enabling a group of lesser age to better interact with the Windows 8 platform. Let’s be frank, the Snapchat generation isn’t living on Windows; but to bring Vevo to the platform could woo them to a more Windows centric action flow.

The app integrates into the Search Charm, allowing users to “discover” their favorite artists or “discover new music with the various filtering options.” The app also fits with other Windows 8 user interface elements, such as Snap.

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Let’s be frank. Windows 8 needs more and better applications. Microsoft has been hard at work with dollars and bodies to expand its corpus; the issue is that as the platform remains nascent, convincing top dogs to build is not simple.

The conversation is a sale not a satiation.

Vevo and Tesco are good pick ups for Microsoft, but they remain small notes in a larger belt. Frost, however, has the proper context:

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

The bulk of Microsoft’s work lays ahead of it. Let’s see what it can enact at Build.

Top Image Credit: Oli Scarff / Getty Images