Windows Phone 7 hits 5,000 apps in 2 months, equaling Palm's webOS

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform now has more than 5,000 applications written for it, well behind the 300,000 for Apple's iOS, but matching the total number of programs for Palm's webOS in just over two months.



As noted by CNNMoney.com, the new Windows Phone 7 platform topped 5,000 applications in its mobile download store this week. That's already as many apps as HP's 18-month-old Palm webOS platform, as well as a third as many applications available from BlackBerry App World.



The report noted that almost all of the most-downloaded applications available for Windows Phone 7 are also available on the iPhone and Android, though there are major omissions like the game "Angry Birds." But Microsoft does have some advantages, such as Netflix's streaming application, which Android does not have.



Applications alone, of course, are not an indicator of sales of Windows Phone 7 devices, but the milestone does suggest that Microsoft has retained strong developer support for its fledgling platform. The numbers could be used to counter other developers who, in November, expressed concern over writing software for Microsoft's new mobile operating system.



But early reviews of Windows Phone 7 after its debut in October found the new platform lacking. And earlier this month, Microsoft announced sales of 1.5 million phones running its new operating system, but those sales were only to channel inventories and not end consumers.



For an app comparison, Apple revealed that there were more than 25,000 applications on the App Store 7 months after it debuted in July of 2008. Since then, the creation of software has only accelerated, reaching 65,000 applications in the store's first year alone.



The App Store has also expanded to a new device, the iPad, which now boasts more than 50,000 applications of its own. In all, the App Store is home to more than 300,000 applications written for iOS devices.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 68
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,843member
    When do the anti virus apps start, or have they already?
  • Reply 2 of 68
    Oh, good. Number of apps finally caught up to the number of phones.
  • Reply 3 of 68
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ddawson100 View Post


    Oh, good. Number of apps finally caught up to the number of phones.



    Lol...You nearly got me in trouble at work...
  • Reply 4 of 68
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ddawson100 View Post


    Oh, good. Number of apps finally caught up to the number of phones sold.



    Good post.
  • Reply 5 of 68
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ddawson100 View Post


    Oh, good. Number of apps finally caught up to the number of phones.



    thanks for the great post, made my day
  • Reply 6 of 68
    How many of these are XNA based hobby games that just needed a recompile? I have not detected any interest from anyone to actually develop specifically for Windows Phone 7 when there are more important platforms to target.
  • Reply 7 of 68
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Here is another comparative stat: Android Market opened on October 22nd, 2008 and on March 17th, 2009, there were about 2,300 applications, according to Wikipedia. That’s almost 2.5x as long to have less than half the apps. I’d say WP7 is off to a pretty good start.
  • Reply 8 of 68
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Here is another comparative stat: Android Market opened on October 22nd, 2008 and on March 17th, 2009, there were about 2,300 applications, according to Wikipedia. That’s almost 2.5x as long to have less than half the apps. I’d say WP7 is off to a pretty good start.



    There seems to be more interest in Android though. They probably just let in any existing Xbox hobbyist game writer to submit their Microsoft XNA Studio game to their store. Most of them are probably equivalent to fart apps.



    EDIT:

    I just checked it out. Looks like I was right. Virtually all of the "Apps" are Xbox XNA Studio games that were re-compiled for the Windows Phone 7. There are a few nice titles among them though. There are very few non-game apps: Adobe Reader, Yelp, Ebay, YouTube, and Netflix were about all I saw. Nothing close to level of sophistication you find on an iPhone.
  • Reply 9 of 68
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by esummers View Post


    There seems to be more interest in Android though. They probably just let in any existing Xbox hobbyist game writer to submit their Microsoft XNA Studio game to their store. Most of them are probably equivalent to fart apps.



    EDIT:

    I just checked it out. Looks like I was right. Virtually all of the "Apps" are Xbox XNA Studio games that were re-compiled for the Windows Phone 7. There are a few nice titles among them though. There are very few non-game apps: Adobe Reader, Yelp, Ebay, YouTube, and Netflix were about all I saw. Nothing close to level of sophistication you find on an iPhone.



    Surely there is more interest in Android (and iOS), you just have to look at the number of apps to see that. I don?t expect that to change anytime soon.



    Fart apps equivalents or not, this is a necessary process, IMO. If WebOS only had 500 apps that are great and satisfy 99% of all user?s needs the store would still look paltry to devs and users. For better or worse these milestones have solidify a platform.



    How many ?crap? apps did Android have during it?s start? I seem to recall a lot of old Java apps, but they?ve grown since then. I think this is the tip for WP7.





    PS: How does WP7 apps stack up against Android apps in quality for the user and the SDK for the dev?
  • Reply 10 of 68
    How many apps did the iPhone have after 60 days? How many iPhones did they sell after 60 days?



    Anyone writing this OS/devices off is a fool.
  • Reply 11 of 68
    sensisensi Posts: 346member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bettieblue View Post


    How many apps did the iPhone have after 60 days? How many iPhones did they sell after 60 days?



    Anyone writing this OS/devices off is a fool.





    "The iPhone had 0 apps for a year before Apple decided to roll out support for 3rd party applications. The App Store opened on 11 July 2008 with 500 apps. After two months there were 3,000 apps"



    I just love how Apple Insider keeps on cherry picking -dishonestly- its numbers. Fact is that the Windows Phone 7 platform has more apps than the iPhone platform two months after its app store launch... Strange that it can't be mentioned, no?



    http://www.zdnet.com/blog/cell-phone...lace-apps/5156
  • Reply 12 of 68
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by esummers View Post


    There seems to be more interest in Android though. They probably just let in any existing Xbox hobbyist game writer to submit their Microsoft XNA Studio game to their store. Most of them are probably equivalent to fart apps.



    EDIT:

    I just checked it out. Looks like I was right. Virtually all of the "Apps" are Xbox XNA Studio games that were re-compiled for the Windows Phone 7. There are a few nice titles among them though. There are very few non-game apps: Adobe Reader, Yelp, Ebay, YouTube, and Netflix were about all I saw. Nothing close to level of sophistication you find on an iPhone.





    Wouldn't it be nice ... if you could copy and paste in/with Adobe Reader!
  • Reply 13 of 68
    As Mentioned last Summer, Microsoft is/was paying developers to develop applications for the WP7. Not to mention that M-Soft has given developers free phones to help them develop the applications for the os. SO now we know where 5,000 phones went, and how the developers were "bribed" to produce applications in order to make it appear that M-Soft is having rapid acceptance from developers.



    http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...e_7_games.html
  • Reply 14 of 68
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sensi View Post


    "The iPhone had 0 apps for a year before Apple decided to roll out support for 3rd party applications. The App Store opened on 11 July 2008 with 500 apps. After two months there were 3,000 apps"



    I just love how Apple Insider keeps on cherry picking -dishonestly- its numbers. Fact is that the Windows Phone 7 platform has more apps than the iPhone platform two months after its app store launch... Strange that it can't be mentioned, no?



    http://www.zdnet.com/blog/cell-phone...lace-apps/5156



    On the contrary it's you who is skewing the facts here. The fact that two years later (ages in tech terms) ms has more apps than apple had two months after they had pioneered the app store model is a completely nonsense argument in favour of the 7 phone. Complete and utter rubbish, since developers are now more confident in an established business model (apple's) and are hence developing more rapidly for other platforms too after having been sweetened by the fruit of their success on apple's platform and model. It's now an established business model the app store, and this is owed to apple of course. Let alone that market penetration of smartphones is nowhere near what it used to be a two years ago...
  • Reply 15 of 68
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sensi View Post


    "The iPhone had 0 apps for a year before Apple decided to roll out support for 3rd party applications. The App Store opened on 11 July 2008 with 500 apps. After two months there were 3,000 apps"



    I just love how Apple Insider keeps on cherry picking -dishonestly- its numbers. Fact is that the Windows Phone 7 platform has more apps than the iPhone platform two months after its app store launch... Strange that it can't be mentioned, no?



    http://www.zdnet.com/blog/cell-phone...lace-apps/5156



    You?re cherry picking, too, and in a way that is less relevant and honest than AI?s choosing to use the 7 month mark to show 15k apps v. the 2 month mark to show 3k apps.



    I don?t even think you realize it or are purposely slanting your comparison. You?re comparing the iPhone (HW) with WP7 (OS). The fact is MS had an SDK and apps long before WP7 came along. If you want to be fair you should be comparing WP7 with iOS 2.0, since that is OS that allowed the 3rd-party apps.



    That said, while this is technically a better start in app numbers than any other ?app phone? OS, esummers? point needs to be heavily considered. On top of that, we?re talking about a company that had never done this before compared to MS with a lot of mobile app ecosystem experience. Finally, note the interest in smartphones have increased dramatically since 2008 so we?d expect a certain percentage to be attributed to that. There are no laboratory vacuum tests to be done here, so we?re going to have to try to be objective and look at every angle to see the big picture.
  • Reply 16 of 68
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    The important thing is quality of the apps not quantity, of course that is a lot harder to measure. I suspect a lot of these apps will be people attempting to gold rush, and also a lot of iOS ports, which may be lower quality on the Windows device due to being ports. LoL, c.f. Windows apps ported to the Mac.
  • Reply 17 of 68
    sensisensi Posts: 346member
    @ myapplelove



    Oh please, Apple Insider is voluntary and arbitrary taking -for its irrelevant "comparison"- the number of iPhone apps after 7 months of the app store, why? Because otherwise it would reveals the little fact that I have mentioned above and for which you, among others, don't seem to be able to cope with.
  • Reply 18 of 68
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sensi View Post


    "The iPhone had 0 apps for a year before Apple decided to roll out support for 3rd party applications. The App Store opened on 11 July 2008 with 500 apps. After two months there were 3,000 apps"



    I just love how Apple Insider keeps on cherry picking -dishonestly- its numbers. Fact is that the Windows Phone 7 platform has more apps than the iPhone platform two months after its app store launch... Strange that it can't be mentioned, no?



    http://www.zdnet.com/blog/cell-phone...lace-apps/5156



    This is comparing apples to oranges. No mobile app store existed prior to Apple inventing it. No one knew what to expect, what would sell, what wouldn't, etc... M$ has the benefit of Apple's experience in creating a market to develop their platform. M$ should have more apps than Apple did after 2 months, but in reality, there is the expectation to see more than there is.



    And I'm still trying to find out how many WP7's have actually been sold to customers/activated after the first 60 days. M$ ain't telling, which tells me the numbers are low. If that remains so, how many app developers are going to build for anything other than the Android/iOS cash cows?



    Compare this to the first iPhone, which 'activated' 150,000 phones in the very first weekend of sales (US only). I wonder if WP7 have activated that many in the first 2 months - worldwide?
  • Reply 19 of 68
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    You?re cherry picking, too, and in a way that is less relevant and honest than AI?s choosing to use the 7 month mark to show 15k apps v. the 2 month mark to show 3k apps.



    I don?t even think you realize it or are purposely slanting your comparison. You?re comparing the iPhone (HW) with WP7 (OS). The fact is MS had an SDK and apps long before WP7 came along. If you want to be fair you should be comparing WP7 with iOS 2.0, since that is OS that allowed the 3rd-party apps.



    That said, while this is technically a better start in app numbers than any other ?app phone? OS, esummers? point needs to be heavily considered. On top of that, we?re talking about a company that had never done this before compared to MS with a lot of mobile app ecosystem experience. Finally, note the interest in smartphones have increased dramatically since 2008 so we?d expect a certain percentage to be attributed to that. There are no laboratory vacuum tests to be done here, so we?re going to have to try to be objective and look at every angle to see the big picture.



    Not to mention that mobile app stores was pretty foreign to most people back when the App Store was rolled out.
  • Reply 20 of 68
    macrulezmacrulez Posts: 2,455member


    deleted

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