Is this the Windows 8 App Store?

A leaked screenshot from Windows 8 purporting to be the new New Windows App Store has surfaced on a Chinese web site.

The series of images from cnbeta.com show a window identified as Windows App Store with a number of applications including games, Microsoft’s own productivity software and third-party software such as the Opera 11 web browser.

The simple interface has main folders on the left side of Desktop, Store and Settings. The Desktop folders has a single Apps folder which appears to show installed applications, pictured with a number of default Windows applications including Internet Explorer as well as Word and Excel.

Additional screenshots are shown in Chinese along with popular Chinese third party applications such as the QQ messenger.

There are some warning bells regarding the screenshots namely the unusual featuring of Windows 7 Ultimate OS in the New Apps section as well as third party applications such as competing web browsers but these may just be place holders.

It’s also perhaps unlikely that Microsoft would go for the generic "App Store" given the use of "Windows Marketplace" on Windows Phone 7. However the original poster did allude to evidence of a recent name change from a Chinese word for "store" to one more closely translated to "market" or "marketplace."

At any rate with the massive consumer movement towards integrated application stores and earlier news that Windows 8 would adopt an application package system similar to that of Windows Phone 7, some form of ‘app store’ is almost certain to feature on the upcoming Windows 8.

These screenshots may or may not be what it looks like.