The mobile app market is in its infancy even though there are thousands available. The really useful ones will eventually be available on all the popular platforms so it is not how many apps that is important, rather which platforms survive for a number of reasons.
Popular apps really only have a few categories:
Major vendors offering free apps:
Skype, Acrobat, Google, etc.
Paid Games:
Racing, shooter, strategy type titles from well known publishers
Free or cheap utilities:
Transit schedules, metric conversion, weather
Expensive apps:
Tom Tom, Business apps, etc.
All of the the essential apps should show up very quickly on WP7 as they have on Android.
Whether WP7 will be profitable for MS, the developers or carriers remains to be seen but Its success or failure will not be for lack of suitable apps.
How many did Microsoft pay for? There was an article earlier that said they were going to buy their way into acceptance.
We?ll likely never know, but I suppose quite a few, but that?s how the game works. Note that when Apple introduced their SDK and App Store they had invited some developers to Cupertino to work on apps for the event and had a VC announce $100M in funding for devs. While these are different approaches both Apple and MS both created a foundation to encourage developer support.
Microsoft have created the best foundation for a mobile OS and the best mobile paradigm in the market, but they still have a very long way to go.
5000 applications would be great if it was a list of the 5000 most popular iOS applications, but it isn't. They are still missing some really major applications like Pandora and Skype. Personally I think they should be funding the creation of these themselves.
Add to that the sparse feature list that needs filling out and the almost non-existent mind share and it's obvious Microsoft have their work cut out for them.
Microsoft have created the best foundation for a mobile OS and the best mobile paradigm in the market, but they still have a very long way to go.
5000 applications would be great if it was a list of the 5000 most popular iOS applications, but it isn't. They are still missing some really major applications like Pandora and Skype. Personally I think they should be funding the creation of these themselves.
Add to that the sparse feature list that needs filling out and the almost non-existent mind share and it's obvious Microsoft have their work cut out for them.
I am not sure if one needs Pandora, or if it will come, as it directly competes with the Zune Pass. I got my wife a WP7, and she had a month free (with 10 song download per month the keep), and I have to say, it is a great service. So, I am not sure that Pandora will make the effort given the Zune Pass.
How many did Microsoft pay for? There was an article earlier that said they were going to buy their way into acceptance.
About 0. Similar to the number of independent devs that got a phone.
The numbers arnt really comparable as on one hand Apple developed the current app store market so they had a harder start, but on the other they were offering an entire year of iPhone sales as the customer base for apps which MS doesn't have.
Also any ideas that an iPhone app could be easy ported to WP7 are just insane. Just compare IMDB on the iPhone to WP7, the phones have completely different styles and an iPhone app would just look stupid on wp7.
I am not sure if one needs Pandora, or if it will come, as it directly competes with the Zune Pass. I got my wife a WP7, and she had a month free (with 10 song download per month the keep), and I have to say, it is a great service. So, I am not sure that Pandora will make the effort given the Zune Pass.
That may be true, but people need to buy the phone before they can discover things like the Zune Pass.
Microsoft need Pandora. Even if all Pandora users end up switching to Zune Pass.
I've noticed since the last post that the Kindle app is available and Evernote is on the way.
To me these are more important milestones than "5,000 apps". There is a handful of important apps that Microsoft need to guarantee are available on WP7. Kindle and Evernote are two, Pandora and Skype are two more, and I'm sure there are a few hundred others.
After that it's just games, games and more games. Microsoft should be pumping money into the indy dev community and creating their own games through Microsoft Game Studio's.
When someone asks "so what separates WP7 from iPhone or Android" the answer needs to be "it has better games" rather than "it doesn't have as many features".
Comments
The mobile app market is in its infancy even though there are thousands available. The really useful ones will eventually be available on all the popular platforms so it is not how many apps that is important, rather which platforms survive for a number of reasons.
Popular apps really only have a few categories:
Major vendors offering free apps:
Skype, Acrobat, Google, etc.
Paid Games:
Racing, shooter, strategy type titles from well known publishers
Free or cheap utilities:
Transit schedules, metric conversion, weather
Expensive apps:
Tom Tom, Business apps, etc.
All of the the essential apps should show up very quickly on WP7 as they have on Android.
Whether WP7 will be profitable for MS, the developers or carriers remains to be seen but Its success or failure will not be for lack of suitable apps.
indeed.
How many did Microsoft pay for? There was an article earlier that said they were going to buy their way into acceptance.
We?ll likely never know, but I suppose quite a few, but that?s how the game works. Note that when Apple introduced their SDK and App Store they had invited some developers to Cupertino to work on apps for the event and had a VC announce $100M in funding for devs. While these are different approaches both Apple and MS both created a foundation to encourage developer support.
My wife got the LG Quantum Windows 7 phone and it's actually quite nice.
Very nice build quality. It's not as nice as my iPhone 4 but still a really nice phone.
I have played with the phone a lot. In general, the apps are not as good as most on iOS.
But, I do like her facebook app better than mine.
Just because this is an apple site, doesn't mean MS products are all horrible.
Just like windows 7 for home computers, MS did a good job.
Notice the apple making fun of windows commercials are all gone.
Windows 7 is a rock solid OS and apple cant make fun of it.
I personally use mac and iPhone but wife still likes windows.
Go to a win doze site and sprout your love of micros$&t. I detest m$ and don't want to read posts that defend them ok.
5000 applications would be great if it was a list of the 5000 most popular iOS applications, but it isn't. They are still missing some really major applications like Pandora and Skype. Personally I think they should be funding the creation of these themselves.
Add to that the sparse feature list that needs filling out and the almost non-existent mind share and it's obvious Microsoft have their work cut out for them.
Microsoft have created the best foundation for a mobile OS and the best mobile paradigm in the market, but they still have a very long way to go.
5000 applications would be great if it was a list of the 5000 most popular iOS applications, but it isn't. They are still missing some really major applications like Pandora and Skype. Personally I think they should be funding the creation of these themselves.
Add to that the sparse feature list that needs filling out and the almost non-existent mind share and it's obvious Microsoft have their work cut out for them.
I am not sure if one needs Pandora, or if it will come, as it directly competes with the Zune Pass. I got my wife a WP7, and she had a month free (with 10 song download per month the keep), and I have to say, it is a great service. So, I am not sure that Pandora will make the effort given the Zune Pass.
How many did Microsoft pay for? There was an article earlier that said they were going to buy their way into acceptance.
About 0. Similar to the number of independent devs that got a phone.
The numbers arnt really comparable as on one hand Apple developed the current app store market so they had a harder start, but on the other they were offering an entire year of iPhone sales as the customer base for apps which MS doesn't have.
Also any ideas that an iPhone app could be easy ported to WP7 are just insane. Just compare IMDB on the iPhone to WP7, the phones have completely different styles and an iPhone app would just look stupid on wp7.
I am not sure if one needs Pandora, or if it will come, as it directly competes with the Zune Pass. I got my wife a WP7, and she had a month free (with 10 song download per month the keep), and I have to say, it is a great service. So, I am not sure that Pandora will make the effort given the Zune Pass.
That may be true, but people need to buy the phone before they can discover things like the Zune Pass.
Microsoft need Pandora. Even if all Pandora users end up switching to Zune Pass.
I've noticed since the last post that the Kindle app is available and Evernote is on the way.
To me these are more important milestones than "5,000 apps". There is a handful of important apps that Microsoft need to guarantee are available on WP7. Kindle and Evernote are two, Pandora and Skype are two more, and I'm sure there are a few hundred others.
After that it's just games, games and more games. Microsoft should be pumping money into the indy dev community and creating their own games through Microsoft Game Studio's.
When someone asks "so what separates WP7 from iPhone or Android" the answer needs to be "it has better games" rather than "it doesn't have as many features".