Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system now reached 40,000 apps. This is just in time when Nokia began marketing its upcoming Lumia 800 phone that runs on Windows Phone. According to All About Windows Phone web site, 165 apps were being added to the Marketplace each day.
More than two thirds of the apps in Windows Phone Marketplace are free. Nine percent of the paid apps come with free trial. Compared to Apple’s App Store, the number of apps available for Windows Phone is small. At present, the App Store has more than 500,000 apps and users downloaded at least 18 billion apps. Google’s Android Marketplace has around 400,000 apps. To be fair to Microsoft, its Marketplace is just slightly a year old.
At present, 10,731 publishers are working on the Windows Phone operating system. If the current growth rate continues, then Microsoft’s mobile platform would surpass 50,000 apps in January. Some analysts say that the submission rate could spike up with the release of new phones from Nokia.
Out of the 40,000 plus apps currently published, at least 5,500 were removed or withdrawn from the Windows Phone operating system. Availability of apps varies according to the region with the United States having the most apps with 33,950. It is followed by the United Kingdom with 32,332 apps.
