Topic: Windows

Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone

Summary: The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace just passed 10,000 apps and is continuing on an accelerated pace. They beat iOS, RIM, and Android to this level too.

By Matthew Miller for Smartphones and Cell Phones | March 12, 2011 -- 08:10 GMT (00:10 PST)

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You may have seen my Windows Phone Wednesday articles and in my last one I was expecting the Marketplace to hit 10,000 apps some time around my next week's article. It seems that developers were especially aggressive this week though and according to the Marketplace Browser website we are now at 10,037 apps for Windows Phone 7. This just happens to have been the fastest platform to 10,000 apps. webOS is still only about half way to this milestone and it has been out since mid-2009.

According to data Pocketnow referenced, it took Apple 4.7 months to reach this level and Android 11 months. BlackBerry App World launch in April 2009 and has about 20,000 apps. I am not a huge fan of just counting up apps as a way to decide who wins, but with such huge selections the chances that the apps you like are available is much greater.

There are junky apps on every platform and if you want you can throw out all kinds of themes, ebooks, etc. that shouldn't really count as apps. However, it is important to check the trends and if Windows Phone Marketplace continues at this pace then things will be good for users. The quality of Xbox LIVE games on Windows Phone 7 is fantastic, as are hundreds of others that take advantage of the slick Metro UI. For example, take a look at Kevin Tofel's thoughts on Runkeeper for WP7 to see why he likes it better than his iPhone version.

Topics: Windows, Microsoft, Mobility, Operating Systems, Software

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56 comments

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RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone

Now if only we can get a decent turn-by-turn navigation app that doesn't require a monthly billing, it'll be perfect. A-to-B is OK, but I want one that can talk.

illegaloperation
12 March, 2011 08:45

Reply Vote
- Apple and Google did not pay to developers for making applications
 
 That is the "secret" of this WP7 record.
 
 As to other software (including for navigation), it is not decided just with money. More serious companies do that software and Microsoft's financing does not interest them much.
 
 DDERSSS
 12 March, 2011 09:51
 
 Reply Vote
 - RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone
 
 @denisrs Developers doesn't need to be paid to make apps for Windows Phone 7. Even with a much smaller user base, developers are making more money with Windows Phone platform than Android platform. After all, the Android platform is full of freeloaders who don't actually pay for apps and expect them to be free or pirated.
 
 illegaloperation
 12 March, 2011 09:56
 
 Reply Vote
 - And how many did microsoft finance? 20? 30?
 
 Only a complete idiot would make or believe such crap. There are over half a million downloads of the phone dev tools and over 30000 registered app devs already. WP is already better than either ios or android and the app are better and the tools for making apps are better. MS has a winner here.
 
 Johnny Vegas
 12 March, 2011 10:01
 
 Reply Vote
 - MS must ....
 
 @Johnny Vegas
 
 have a small army of fan boys like you trying to create the perception of success. Cut the hot air and post some facts.
 
 Economister
 12 March, 2011 10:58
 
 Reply Vote
 - RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone
 
 @denisrs
 
 As a WP7 developer, can I ask where the line is for the MS money?
 
 tonymcs@...
 12 March, 2011 16:57
 
 Reply Vote
 - RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone
 
 @day2die "After all, the Android platform is full of freeloaders who don't actually pay for apps and expect them to be free or pirated." What? The Android platform is full of a bunch of users who didn't want to buy an iPhone, and thought RIM, WP6 and 6.5 were inadequate. I'm a Microsoft guy with an Android phone because WP7 wasn't out yet when my contract was up and I couldn't take one more day with my BB Storm (POS). Why make sweeping generalizations about people based on what phone they buy?
 
 bmonsterman
 14 March, 2011 12:22
 
 Reply Vote
- RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone
 
 @day2die
 
 This should be expected. In reality, mst of the apps have already been written for iOS, Android etc and so they "only" needed to be ported to WP7. The real shock would have been if this had not happened.
 
 Restricted_access
 12 March, 2011 15:39
 
 Reply Vote
 - RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone
 
 @ptorning So according to you, porting an app for WP7 means just recompiling it in VS?
 
 abhinavkmr
 13 March, 2011 00:44
 
 Reply Vote
 - RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone
 
 @abhinav.kumar.in@...: what he means is that the idea and general algorithms have already been made. Some companies even use "code-templates" and substitute code from one side to the other. Considering that iPhone is Objective C and C++, most libraries are left as standalone classes, which need only be ported to C#. With that said, the real milestone is not 10k but 50k, since you can easily filter all Android and iPhone apps with no need for Native or quasi-native support (aka Accelerometer, Compass, Camera, etc) against those that depend on it. Those "true" apps (against "novelty" apps or game apps) would likely wait until "Mango" is releases. And speaking of "Mango" (aka WP7.5), it remains to be seen how down compatible can Microsoft get while at the same time switching to a WEC7 core (welcomed for IE9, multitasking and native support but required by MS to avoid any further forking of Silverlight for Windows Embedded).
 
 cosuna
 14 March, 2011 11:11
 
 Reply Vote
 - RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone
 
 @ptorning
 
 That didn't help Android as it took them almost a year to get that many.
 
 Mythos7
 14 March, 2011 14:41
 
 Reply Vote
RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone

This is the news I like to read because now AKH and his trolling article about WP7 can shove it. Dropped the ball? Hardly, not with 10,000 apps in place and more on its way. Apparently people are picking up that ball and playing with it.

Loverock Davidson
12 March, 2011 08:52

Reply Vote
- Sure, dream on LD
  
  @Loverock Davidson
  
  10 000 apps and no phone sales to speak of. Eventually theses developers will catch on and stop developing.
  
  Economister
  12 March, 2011 09:00
  
  Reply Vote
  - Wrong. WP is selling better than iphone or android did when they first
    
    came out and that's despite much stiffer competition. It's organic growth is doing great and when nokia is fully online shipping world wide it'll take over first place in market share in addition to its current first place standings in reliability, perfomance, and quality of apps.
    
    Johnny Vegas
    12 March, 2011 10:05
    
    Reply Vote
  - A fan boy response...
    
    @Johnny Vegas
    
    with no sales figures? If you have facts, post them. Fan boy dreams about the future are just that.
    
    Economister
    12 March, 2011 10:53
    
    Reply Vote
  - RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone
    
    @Economister
    
    How long are you going to keep it up Economister? If you ever do find out WP7 sales, it's just going to depress you.
    
    tonymcs@...
    12 March, 2011 16:59
    
    Reply Vote
  - Economister, Here is an option
    
    @Economister
    You talk of no phone sales, yet how can a company like Verizon sell a phone it has not received yet?
    I see many a post from people here that state they are waiting for the phone to appear at other carrier's stores before purchasing.
    
    Using your logic I could claim that the iPhone is not as sucessful as Apple claims since I noticed no one purchasing one last June in the Verizon store I visited.
    
    Tim Cook
    13 March, 2011 08:13
    
    Reply Vote
  - RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone
    
    @Economister
    
    The best actual data of WP7 sales comes from Facebook.
    
    https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AnH7Ru-k1dP3dDVFdFpzamdWWWtzc0xhakhMdzhmeUE&hl=en#gid=3
    
    There are, at present, 520k active monthly users of the native facebook app, and 425k of the facebook-made app. There is probably a lot of overlap there, so being conservative, call it 600k active monthly facebook users.
    
    There is about a 3:1 ratio on android of android users to active monthly facebook users on android (or so I am told I haven't personally verified).
    
    Also, several of the regions it is selling in have much lower facebook penetration. Germany for example, where DT claims good WP7 sell-through, has only a 30% facebook penetration vs the US.
    
    Given that, it seems reasonable to guess between 750k and 2.5million WP7 handsets in the wild. So it is somewhere in the same ballpark as the original iPhone, and doing much better than android's initial numbers.
    
    SlithyTove
    13 March, 2011 17:11
    
    Reply Vote
Nothing special about this achievement.

This is not to downplay windows phone 7's capabilities, but this isn't a surprise. You have hundreds of thousands of apps already developed on the android and iOS based systems. A lot of these apps are simply ported over to the windows phone 7, which would dramatically decrease development time for an app. If Android/iOS were the last one to 'launch' their system, they would have had the same achievement

jsmith123454321
12 March, 2011 09:24

Reply Vote
- RE: Windows Phone Marketplace fastest to hit 10,000 app milestone
 
 @jsmith123454321 Surely several apps have been ported from iPhone and Android, but that doesn't explain why Windows Phone has passed Web OS and is rapidly gaining on Blackberry. The bottom line is that the developer story for Windows Phone, and frankly most Microsoft products has been phenomenal. Brandon Watson is pretty amazing at responding to criticism and assuaging unrest. The consumer side of things on the other hand... It was never going to be a quick path to success -- or failure for that matter -- but the communication has been about as awful as possible, virtually printing money for click-hungry bloggers. That said, they are clearly in this for the long haul and they will work out the kinks.
 
 Rich Miles
 12 March, 2011 09:56
 
 Reply Vote