Before you start selling your apps in the Windows Store, you must have a developer account, which means that you must register yourself at the Windows Developer Center. To do so, you must register with a Microsoft account at https://appdev.microsoft.com/StorePortals/. The procedure has a cost: $49 as individual or $99 as company. This will allow you to access the Windows Developer Center Dashboard. Optionally, if you are already registered as a Windows Phone developer you can link these two accounts in order to use the same publisher name for both platforms (see Figure B-1).

To create a developer account, you can log in with a Microsoft account. The process is simple. You choose the type of account (Individual or Company) and then you add your personal or company information, like the name of the publisher, country, phone, and e-mail. At the end, you will use a credit card to pay the registration fee (see Figure B-2).

The Individual account has also some limitations that company account does not have; this account type is for people who want to create apps for consumers, because one of the limitations is the ability to publish just Windows Store apps. If you plan to publish both Windows Store and desktop apps, you must opt for a Company account. Choosing a Company account type enables you to access special use capabilities like.

• Enterprise authentication (enterpriseAuthentication) for Windows domain credentials use
• Shared user certificates (sharedUserCertificates) to access software and hardware certificates such as digital signature
• Documents library (documentsLibrary) to gain access to the user’s Documents library programmatically. You should use this capability only in particular scenarios where you cannot use the file picker.

Each account needs to be verified by confirming registrant identity and payment method before you can submit an app.

As mentioned, there are two reasons to start developing Windows Store apps, one of which is economic opportunity. Microsoft knows that to attract new developers on this new platform, besides the number of potential users, it must entice economically, providing an interesting revenue sharing rate. Initially, you make 70% of your app’s price on each sale; when you reach $25,000 of sales, the percentage increases to 80% for the rest of your application’s lifetime. Once your app has earned at least $200, you can get paid from the Windows Store by setting your bank account information in the Payout section of your profile (see Figure B-3).

You also need to fill a tax form in the Tax section of your profile. If you live in the United States, the tax form is the W-9; otherwise you need to fill out the W-8BEN form (see Figure B-4).

Once you have set this information, you are ready to submit your first app.