Windows Store Crosses 50,000 Apps Milestone | TechTree.com

Windows Store Crosses 50,000 Apps Milestone

Picks up momentum after intermediate slowdown for a couple of months, possibly due to Microsoft's promotion program for developers.

 

Windows Store has now over 50,000 apps on Saturday according to MetroStore Scanner, an independent agency that keeps an unofficial count of the number. The store opened on 29th February, 2012, and features free as well as paid apps — with prices ranging from $1.50 to $1000. Interestingly, of the 50,304 apps available right now, 46,784 or a whopping 93% are free, while 3520 are paid. This is a jump from the 87% free apps of the 20,610 reported in late November 2012 when the store had crossed the 20,000 apps milestone.

Windows Store is not to be confused with Windows Phone Store. The former features apps and games for Microsoft's latest Windows 8 and Windows RT OSes for desktop and tablet PCs; Windows Phone Store hosts applications for Window Phone mobile devices.

On the other hand, Mac App Store — the Mac counterpart of Windows Store — started with around a thousand apps in January 2011, and right now features only 14,065 apps. This is just 1500 apps more than what it had at the end of November 2012 — a very sluggish growth. In terms of number of apps, Windows Store has far surpassed its Mac counterpart despite the latter being around for twice as long. This could be a tell-tale indicator of the interest of the developer community and its trust in this platform because of the increasing number of Windows 8 and Windows RT devices, as well as the adoption of this OS by users who are upgrading from earlier versions of Windows.

Windows Store had reached 20,000 apps in November of last year and an average of 400 apps per day was being submitted during that time, which projected the store to cross 30,000 before the end of the year. This would have resulted in 10,000 apps every month, and the 50,000 mark would have been breached a month ago. However, the number of apps submissions per day dropped to just 150 in February and that target could not be achieved. This has since recovered to around 280 apps per day, possibly receiving a shot in the arm from Microsoft's "Keep the Cash" promotion. This promotion rewards developers with a cash bonus of $100 per app submitted to the Windows Store or Windows Phone Store. Developers can therefore make up to $2000 from 20 apps (10 each for Windows Store and Windows Phone Store) submitted between 8th March and 30th June, 2013. The promotion is valid to 10,000 submissions in all. While all the promotional activities are a good thing to provide encouragement to developers, we are only hoping that the company doesn't lose focus on quality over quantity.


Windows Store Crosses 50,000 Apps Milestone


TAGS: Apps, Software, Windows, Microsoft

 
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