Microsoft confirmed last night that the Windows 8 app store will go live in February 2012. It hopes to provide competition to other app stores for mobile operating systems, such as Apple and Android.

“As a part of our Windows device life cycle, Microsoft Store will soon stop accepting new apps with Windows Phone 8.x or earlier or Windows 8/8.1 packages (XAP and APPX). Soon after that ...

Our new app for Windows 8 is live and available in the Windows 8 Store. It's all the great content and articles you get from our desktop site optimized for Win8 and devices like the Surface tablet.