Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

Summary: The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace is taking off with a total app count around 5,000 just about 2 months since the devices were rolled out. The Android Market is also taking off.

Last week I posted about the obvious success of the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and now I see the Bing Visual Search page is limiting the view of apps to a maximum of 3,000 for some reason. According to the Marketplace Browser, there are over 5,138 apps for Windows Phone 7. And according to AndroLib.com there are now over 200,000 Android apps in the Android Market.

Windows Phone 7

The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace is growing faster than any other app store has to date and it looks like the major Microsoft developer initiative is paying off. I know that my SIM has been living in my T-Mobile HD7 and I am liking the device more every single day thanks in large part to the available applications. Wednesdays are Windows Live days and today we saw the release of the Revolution and Rise of Glory games for just $2.99 each. I played the trial of both and subsequently purchased both. Revolution is a cool gears puzzle game that I found instantly addicting and Rise of Glory is a fun flight simulator/dogfighting aerial combat game, both very high quality.

I also found that the popular ShopSavvy application that was one of the first I installed on my Android devices is now available in the WP7 Marketplace. One of the weaknesses of Windows Phone 7's Zune integration is the lack of podcast support from the handset so I was very pleased to find the Podcasts! app that lets you search, add favorites, and stream podcasts. Offline caching of podcasts would be a wonderful addition to make my HD7 even more useful. I think we will hear much more from Microsoft and developers next week at CES and am getting more and more impressed with Windows Phone 7.

What are your favorite Windows Phone 7 apps and what else should I try out?

Android

It seems like we have been talking about Android as having 100,000+ apps for quite some time, as compared to the 300,000+ iOS apps. We now hear from some sources (Google hasn't made an official statement yet) that there are about 200,000 Android apps. I know I discover more each day on my Samsung Galaxy Tab, thousands of which are available for free.

What are your favorite Android apps?

Topics: Browser, Android, Google, Microsoft, Mobility, Operating Systems, Software, Windows

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

127 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

    It seems the more apps get released the harder it becomes to find good ones. :-(

    Android application marketplace isn't only apps so 200,000 is not the number of apps.
    jhughesy
    • 50,000 of them

      @jhughesy

      Are annoying sound boards and far generators. A few of them are fake AV. My daughter was nice enough to accidentally install that while playing a game.
      LiquidLearner
    • RE: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

      @jhughesy <br><br>Something I've been pointing out for some time now. How are things like widgets, wallpapers, ringtones and other junk that populates the Android "wild wild west" store considered apps?
      dave95.
    • Windows Phone 7 apps are not selling

      @jhughesy - It's harder to find good apps on Windows Phone 7 because the vast majority are hobbyist apps.

      Most of the WP7 apps made by big companies were paid for by Microsoft. There is otherwise no profit on Windows Phone 7.

      ZDNet's sister publication, TechRepublic said that most Windows Phone 7 apps are downloaded less than 10 times. That means there are very few WP7 handsets out there.

      Windows Phone 7 has flopped.
      Vbitrate
      • I agree - if it doesn't sell out in 60 days its a FLOP

        like Android - it sold 10 million handests in just SIXTY DAYS!!
        Ron Bergundy
      • RE: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

        @zndac

        I think if you look at metrics, Microsoft probably would want the numbers to be higher of sales, as most business probably would.

        However, having used used the Android platform on a few different phones, there really is no comparison when it comes to quality of use. Put the Windows phone side by side any Android phone and it simply blows it out of the water. I've let my friends and family play around with my phone and first, they want one, and second, Android/Windows is lost on them. They know it isn't an IPhone but when I say 'it's the new Window's phone' their eyes glaze over. What most users are concerned with is functionality. And quite simply, the Windows phone functions better.

        I've never been an Apple guy so I can't compare it with the IPhone.
        retnep
      • MS refuses to release information on apps sales

        The author of this article has absolutely no idea. He bought a couple of games that he likes and extrapolates, from that, that WP7 is doing well. What an incredible leap of logic. Well, here are a couple of facts. MS won't be releasing any dividends to developers until Feb 2011. As well, MS is refusing to tell developers the number of times that their apps have been sold until Feb 2011. So, no-one except MS has any idea about how well or poorly apps are being sold. So, how does the author jump to a conclusion that the marketplace is growing faster than any other app store? Purely on the basis of the number of apps? Until MS releases sales figures in Feb 2011, we won't have any idea about how well WP7 is performing. And, the fact that MS won't release the figures can only be seen as a sign that sales are not as high as MS (and developers) would like them to be! I am not being anti- nor pro- MS. The issue quite simply is that sales figures etc will not be made available until Feb 2011 and until then no-one will know how well WP7 and its apps are performing.
        Restricted_access
    • RE: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

      @jhughesy

      Love my WP7 HTC Mozart and so do my employees. It's the difference between an elegant tool and a toy. All the FUD cyber and Donnie and the others under the bridge keep providing doesn't matter - you just have to try one.

      What should concern the trolls and have them stocking up on anti-depressants is to consider the .Net, XNA and Silverlight applications that will be ported to the WP7 - simply because you can. MS has the best software development system and the ability to target PC, Xbox and Wp7.

      Perhaps you'd like to compare the number of Windows applications to fart and flashlight applications on Android and iPhone.

      Of course, the actual measure is suspect. I've had wp7 for a month and have yet to purchase an app. Tried quite a few (mainly games) but the phone is so useful out of the box, that I haven't really felt the need to purrchase anything.

      There are also some benefits from no custom ring tones (and you do have a huge choice to select from). No late nite ads and no children running up huge bills by "subscribing" to ring tones. Wanting a custom ring tone says more about you than it does utility ;-)
      tonymcs@...
      • All 12 of those fart apps

        @tonymcs@...

        Your "toy" line is old, tired and simply a lie. My favorite "insight" of yours was when you predicted the iPhone could never sell more than 20,000,000 units per year. To think they do that every 3-4 months.

        While WP7 actually looks like a good design, being rare from MS, the iPhone Android currently blows it out of the water for functionality.
        Bruizer
    • Too many choices

      @jhughesy

      Having choices is good. We like choosing. We especially like that many of the really good iPhone apps have Android equivalents.

      And for the author of the article, why are so many articles bundling Windows Phone 7 with either iPhone or Android as if the two are both doing well? Look at the numbers. Windows Phone 7 might be relevant one day, but until then this nonsense is just silly.
      symbolset
    • RE: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

      Windows Phone KIN and Wp7 is the year's flops. They sell so bad that Microsoft refuses to show sales figures ...

      Microsoft is desperate!!!

      Show us the real numbers MS

      R.I.P == Wp7
      Sultansulan
      • RE: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

        @Sultansulan Exactly! And they also won't release payments to app developers not release information about the number of apps sold to their developers. They have to wait until Feb 2011. Sounds like desperation to me! The only info released so far is that 1.5m WP7 phones have been "sold", but that info is dodgy because it only applies to phones sold to retailers etc, not the actual number of phones sold to customers. Some articles suggest as few as 750,000 were sold in the first 6 weeks, but from that you need to subtract 90,000 bought by Ms and 30,000 by another company. That means that possibly as few as 600,000 to 650,000 WP7 phones were sold in the first 6 weeks, and there are something like 30 different devices. Samsung Bada phone/s sold 1million in only 4 weeks. It is quite normal for MS to crow about its supposed successes and the fact that they don't crow about WP7 and won't release useful information on sales, apps sold, income from apps and so forth is very telling . . . in a very negative way!
        Restricted_access
      • ptorning

        [i]90,000 bought by Ms and 30,000 by another company[/i]

        I know, that never happens with Apple or Android apps, does it?
        Quite telling indeed.
        John Zern
  • RE: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

    @Loverock Davidson

    I received a HD7 for Christmas and I love it. I previously was an Android user for a long time but I grew frustrated with the 'new' software updates that I wasn't getting. Plus, my phone was sluggish in its response.

    I hate to sound like an Apple fanboi, but the HD7 'just works'. It is super smooth and fast. In fact, the phone has about 3 things keeping it from being totally perfect, and I don't use that term lightly.

    1. Minor software misses: The phone doesn't allow for the user to create individual ringtones. Seems like an obvious miss. Also, the inability to cut and paste has been mentioned to death. I'm counting these minor fixes to be in place for the update that Microsoft has planned early next year.

    2. Missing Apps: The App store is growing but there still isn't any IM apps or any dedicated reader apps from the major stores (Kindle, Nook, Borders). On the other hand, the Netflix app is, um, awesome.

    3. Battery life. I don't think it's possible to go the full day without charging my battery on my HD7. Part of the problem probably can be attributed to just how easy the phone is to use. I often find myself just picking up my phone to do things I would have used my laptop/desktop for. I previously was in the market for a Tablet as well, and I seriously considered getting the Galaxy Tab, but now, I simply don't have a need for it.
    retnep
    • RE: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

      @retnep There is an IM app for Live and one for Yahoo.

      I know what you mean about its use. Im using my WP7 way more than any phone I had before. Almost like a tablet to me.
      jhughesy
    • RE: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

      @retnep
      Amazon has been showing off the Kindle for Windows Phone 7 app and said that it will be release in a month or so.

      As for the battery, unfortunately, the HTC HD7 has the biggest screen and the smallest battery of all the WP7 devices.
      illegaloperation
    • you're seriously recommending a phone with poor battery life to friends?

      @retnep
      that phone would go back to the supplier in 2 days if they shipped it to me. This is 2011! Kindles run for a month (or nearly a month if you use the internet on them) on a single charge.
      stevey_d
    • RE: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

      @retnep
      My Android is anything but sluggish. And it works well as a phone, which WP (before 7, never tried 7) never did.
      I sync flawlessly my music and notes from Ubuntu One and works great as a remote control. And turn-by-turn that in my experience is unsurpassed. I have myTouch. T-mobile sucks though.
      I see no reason to migrate to WP, even though it seems a good platform- I will loose all Ubuntu support, copy paste, tethering (which is a killer for me). For now I see it as a dud.
      kirovs@...
    • @stevey_d: depends on your definition of poor

      [i]you're seriously recommending a phone with poor battery life to friends?[/i]

      My BlackBerry, under normal usage, gets about 4 days of battery life. My iPhone, under normal usage, gets between .5 and 1.5 days of battery life, depending on how many games I play. When you talk about poor battery life, you must have missed this part of the post you responded to:
      [i] Part of the problem probably can be attributed to just how easy the phone is to use. I often find myself just picking up my phone to do things I would have used my laptop/desktop for.[/i]

      And this is [b]exactly[/b] why my iPhone has such "poor" battery life when compared to my BB. I actually use it to do stuff, stuff that I would never do on my BB.

      So stevey_d, would you recommend that I return my iPhone 4 to the store? After all, it only gets half a day's worth of battery life.
      NonZealot
    • RE: Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Android Market take off

      @retnep - I think you mean 'I hate to read like an Apple ad ripper, but I'll steal their phrase and say HD7 'just works'.

      There you go. Corrected for the Microsoft ignorant!
      The Danger is Microsoft