At a recent conference in San Francisco, Microsoft's Vice President Antoine Leblond said that the Redmond, Washington- based company is working on the scheduled late-February launch of its first widely available test version of the latest iteration of its flagship operating system, Windows 8.

Leblond further revealed that Microsoft also intends opening a new app store for Windows almost in coincidence with the planned broad availability of the Windows 8 test version.

Earlier, in September this year, a developer preview of the Windows 8 software was released by Microsoft, which also gave the first glimpse of its app store which will be launched early next year.

With an increasing availability of tablet-style devices prompting more on more consumers to shun Windows-based laptops, Microsoft is reportedly making rapid moves in the direction of completing the Windows 8 OS which will boast the capability of running the thin and light tablet devices.

Since it is quite obvious that Microsoft will have to depend on app developers in order to build momentum for Windows 8, the company has promised that its app store will give the software developers the advantage of a bigger cut of revenue than Apple as well as Google.

Noting that the Microsoft app store will spell "the most significant developer opportunity ever," Leblond said: "We want to return the most money we can into the hands of developers, and we want to provide the best economics of any platform."