For the last couple of years the festive season has seen a massive hike in the numbers of apps downloaded as people un-wrap their shiny new devices and excitedly fire them up for the first time.

At the beginning of this year, a 60% increase in weekly downloads led to the total number of app downloads topping a billion over the Christmas period, making it crucial for developers to get their products ready this year in time to meet the rush.

With the launch of Windows 8 only days away, Microsoft’s new Surface Tablet is set to hit the market, and is sure to be gracing many a Christmas stocking this year, along with the various devices from respected manufacturers all running the much anticipated new OS.

Allow developers the best opportunity to take full advantage of this new platform, Microsoft is making it easy for to launch ported apps on for Windows 8 devices in time for the festive download onslaught.

If you’re considering building or porting an app, then the UK Microsoft developer team have a number of Free Dev Camps in London and Manchester over November and early December, to help and support anyone with a Windows 8 App in mind.

2nd November 2012 • Friday • London – register here
3rd November 2012 • Saturday • London – register here
23rd November 2012 • Friday • Manchester – register here
30th November 2012 • Friday • London – register here
1st December 2012 • Saturday • London – register here

For details on the tools and resources, the commercial and advertising models visit the Windows 8 App dev site - here

And if you’re interested in Microsoft’s Cloud service – Windows Azure, then they have a few camps in November too:

Covering Windows Azure Cloud Services, Windows Azure Storage, Windows Azure Active Directory, Windows Azure Service Bus, Windows Azure SQL DB, and Windows Azure Websites.

16th November – London – register here
28th November – London – register here
7th December – London - register here