Microsoft More Than Doubles Phone Store App Catalog In 2012
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
Microsoft said on Thursday that its Windows Phone Store has grown to 75,000 published apps and 300,000 app updates this year, more than double its catalog size at the end of 2011.
“We literally set a new foundation this year with the deployment of all-new infrastructure – new client platform, new developer toolset, new Dev Center, new catalog infrastructure, and all-new global service,” wrote Todd Brix, Microsoft’s senior director for Windows Marketplace, in a blog posting on the company’s Windows Phone Developer Blog.
“I know transitions can be frustrating, but it is now complete and customers and developers are already beginning to reap the benefits with a better app and store experience, faster performance and more robust tools.”
“As a direct result of our investments, Windows Phone customers now download, buy, and use more apps than at any time since we first launched Windows Phone 7 two years ago,” said Brix, adding that Windows Phone users have downloaded, on average, 54 apps each.
In addition to more than doubling its Phone Store catalog size this year, Microsoft also added the ability for users to share comments and concerns about apps and games, and included various discovery enhancements to the Windows Phone platform, Brix said. These include Bing-powered search and smart lists, and new collections and recommendations for Windows Phone 8 users.
The software giant also expanded the number of markets where users can find apps and games, growing more than 90 percent to 191 markets for Windows Phone 8 this year.
Microsoft said it also sought to expand opportunities for developers and has already seen a 40 percent increase in month-over-month developer revenue in the 30 days since the current SDK release.
“There has never been a better time to develop for Windows Phone,” Brix said.
“Even though Windows Phone 8 just started shipping in the last 7 weeks and most developers are still creating new or updated Windows Phone 8 apps, we have already seen an increase in developer revenue,” Brix said.
“We anticipate that to grow with new hardware sales and as apps with new capabilities like in-app purchase begin to reach customers.”
However, while the Windows Phone platform has shown steady improvement and better smartphone and app options this year, sales appear to be sluggish so far, and it remains to be seen whether Phone 8 can seriously challenge the iPhone and Android devices that now dominate the market.
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2012-12-28 09:04:03
Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112754820/microsoft-windows-phone-store-122812/
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