Ms Monica Ahuja is one of the 200-250 developers who travelled to Mumbai to participate in the two-day hackathon organised by Microsoft.
With Microsoft geared to launch Windows 8 later this year, developers with an idea in mind and with a dream to see their app on the Windows Store made their way to the event.
“We were asked to design applications from twenty categories such as education, science, games, etc. I created a game application called Brainvita,” said Ms Ahuja, who was given 36 hours to create the app. There are certain certification requirements on the basis of which applications for the store will be selected.
Things such as alignment, look and feel are some factors which will be taken into consideration, say participating developers.
“This is the fourth hackathon that I have participated in. The USP of the Windows 8 applications is their user friendliness,” said Mr Ravi Raj, a Bangalore-based app designer who aids other developers to create apps.
“Almost 74 of the applications that I have designed have been selected for the Store,” he said, referring to the apps selected from his participation in the Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune.
Ballmer's pat for India
Commenting on the rich talent pool of developers in India, Mr Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corporation, said, “India is an incredible bastion of software developers. On a global scale, 25 to 30 per cent of all the software is written by people in India.”
The new version of the Windows will be cloud-connected and the users will be able to access it on a variety of devices.
The Windows Store will be similar to the Apple store where users will be able to buy and download apps from Microsoft and app developers.