With the launch of its Windows 8 platform last month (and Windows RT, as used in the Surface tablet), Microsoft is positioning its Windows Store as a way for PC users to download software via the internet – a practice already familiar from the smartphone and tablet worlds.

Distimo said that existing mobile app stores have “proven to drive a lot of downloads”, believing that Windows Store will become “an important channel in digital software distribution”.

And Microsoft is already off to something of a flying start: in the first four weeks; the daily download volume among the top 300 most popular apps is already three times higher than for the top 300 most popular titles in Apple’s Mac App Store.

But, echoing the mobile world, where Apple’s platforms are generally perceived as the most lucrative for developers, in terms of paid volume only the Apple store is doing 5 times better than its rival.

According to the study, “Microsoft did a good job in giving local content more visibility in the Windows Store”. In total, 10 percent of all applications are locally-popular only, which is “even higher when we disregard the small countries”.

In Japan, for example, 41 percent of all top 300 apps are locally popular only, with around 30 percent in Korea locally popular only.

The Windows Store has a total of 21,183 applications worldwide, but only 13,844 (65 percent) are available in North America – compared with above 85 percent for most app stores. The total compares well with Apple’s Mac App Store, which counts 13,000 applications worldwide.

Distimo also said that there are differences between the PC store and the Surface (tablet) portal. It noted – perhaps unsurprisingly – that “the PC stores share a lot of characteristics with the Apple Mac App Store like price and the type of popular applications, while the Surface store shares more in common with the tablet and phone app stores”.

It was also observed that there is a difference in average price of all applications in the Windows Store for PC (around US$14) and for Surface (US$4.87), again indicating that tablet proposition is more akin to the existing mobile app stores than computer software sales. It noted that the average price for iPad apps is US$4.44 – similar to that for Surface.

In terms of the top 100 apps, the average price for the Windows Store for desktop was US$3.67, compared with US$2.98 for Surface.

While the most popular category in the Windows Store is games – in common with every app store – the computer store sees “serious” applications being more popular. For example, productivity outscores music & video to secure second place, while tools outscores entertainment for fourth.

Distimo also said that some well-known names have made the list of top publishers in the Windows store during its first month of availability. In addition to Microsoft’s own titles (including Skype), other successful publishers include Rovio, Google and Wikimedia.