It was at the MIX10 conference when the Windows Phone team showed, for the first time, the application platform and tools that developers would use to build applications and games for Windows Phone 7. A year later they have some impressive numbers to share:
Developers:
- 1.5 million people have downloaded the Windows Phone Developer Tools, consisting of Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone and Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone.
- 36,000 members of the AppHub community have voted with their wallets and become members of the Windows Phone developer community.
- 1,200 newly registered developers are added every week!
- 40% of the fully registered developer population has published an app or game, yet 60% have not yet published.
- On average it takes about 1.8 days to have an app or game certified for the Windows Phone Marketplace.
- 62% of all apps pass certification on their first attempt.
Apps:
- 11,500 apps and games are now available for Windows Phone 7 device owners. The number doesn’t include ebooks, mobile content like wallpapers and lite versions. Moreover, apps available in multiple languages are counted only once!
- 7,500 apps are paid, while 1,100 – ad-supported using the Microsoft Advertising Ad Control. The latter group is experiencing a double digit growth rate.
- 44% of all the paid apps include access to a Trial version with developers relying on the Trial API.
- Windows Phone customers download an average of 12 apps each month.
I would say it’s a nice start for Microsoft. The Redmond giant plans to use the upcoming MIX11 to “outline purpose and principles” for the next release of the platform.