Windows Phone passed a very important milestone for the platform this week, as there are now 50,000 apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Though still far behind iOS and Android in terms of number of apps and market share of app downloads, Windows Phone is beginning to prove itself as a capable operating system in today’s complex smartphone market.
What’s very interesting is the short amount of time in which all these apps are being added to the Windows Phone Marketplace. Over 17,000 apps — roughly one-third of all Windows Phone apps — were added to the Marketplace in the last 90 days. On average, 265 new apps make it into the store each day and the most popular categories of apps on Windows Phone are entertainment, games, tools/productivity, and books/reference. Combined, they represent 57 percent of all Windows Phone apps.
The Windows Phone Marketplace is seeing tremendous growth in a relatively short amount of time, considering it’s been on the market for over a year now. Nowadays, a thriving app ecosystem is crucial to the success of a mobile platform, and I’d say the once desperate Microsoft is on its way to having a credible ecosystem in Windows Phone.
The “Windows Phone problem” has been a hot topic recently, with many concerned about the slow growth of the operating system even when reviews are generally quite positive. Is poor marketing to blame? Is Microsoft’s business strategy to blame? Carriers promote Android handsets as much as possible, so are they to blame? No one really has an answer yet, but with news of the speedy increase in Windows Phone apps lately and strong hardware from Nokia, maybe we’re jumping to conclusions too quickly.
What do you think?
[via All About Windows Phone]