Windows Phone Marketplace Surpasses 40000 Apps - Smartphone Development

Windows Phone Marketplace Surpasses 40,000 App Mark

All About Windows Phone, a site dedicated to tracking statistics on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform, recently stated that the Windows Phone Marketplace exceeded the milestone of 40,000 apps within its catalog.  While the milestone does show growth for the mobile platform, it still places it far behind its competitors in the form of the Apple App Store and Google Android Market.

The latest figures released by All About Windows Phone reveal that the Windows Phone Marketplace is adding an average of 165 new apps per day.  If it continues at its current pace, the Windows Phone Marketplace should exceed the 50,000 app mark during January 2012.  A breakdown of the current division in the marketplace has the categories of games and books/reference splitting the top spot with a 15 percent market share each.  Productivity tool apps come in next with 14 percent, while entertainment apps account for 13 percent of the marketplace.  All About Windows Phone stated that 68 percent of the marketplace’s apps are of the free variety.

Nearly 5,000 apps were added within the past month, and approximately 11,000 were added within the last 90 days, which shows that Windows Phone developers are picking up the pace as of late.  A great majority of the newly added apps within the last 90 days come from completely different developers.  Such a statistic is positive for Microsoft’s mobile platform, as it suggests that Windows Phone 7 is gaining appeal amongst developers. 

Although the latest milestone for the Windows Phone Marketplace is a silver lining for Microsoft, the company has a lot of work to do if it wishes to keep pace with its competitors.  The Apple App Store currently has a catalog that exceeds 500,000 apps, and Google’s Android Market has surpassed the 400,000 app mark.  Not only do the sheer numbers greatly favor Apple and Android, but so does some of the selection of highly used apps.  One of the most notable omissions from the Windows Phone Marketplace at this time is the Skype messaging app.  That should change, however, as Microsoft recently acquired Skype.  Whether or not the Windows Phone Marketplace can will measure up to competing app markets remains to be seen, but the latest statistics at least show that developers are opening up to Windows Phone 7. 

For more on this topic, visit http://www.pcworld.com/article/244401/at_40000_apps_windows_phone_marketplace_still_lags.html