Microsoft has certified more than 75,000 apps for its latest smartphone operating system, Windows Phone 8. On its official blog, Microsoft claims that on average, a Windows Phone user downloaded more than 54 apps per person. The Windows Blog says, “Over the last year we’ve certified and published over 75,000 new apps and games (more than doubling the catalog size) and over 300,000 app updates. In addition, this year we added the capability for customers to tell us if they have a concern about an app.”
Microsoft's senior director for Windows Marketplace, Todd Brix said, "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."
Based on customer feedback, Microsoft also found that 85 percent of Windows Phone 8 users indicate they would choose apps with Live Tile functionality over those without. The company said that it also worked to expand opportunities for developers this year. Microsoft has seen a 40 percent increase in month-over-month developer revenue in the 30 days since the current SDK release.
Windows Phone 8 was met with a mixed response when it was launched. The OS finally brought with it features that bring it at par with iOS and Android. Some of these features include expandable memory, support for multi-core processors and high resolution display, and more. The downside to the launch of the OS was that existing smartphones in the market that ran Windows Phone 7.5 were not eligible to receive the new OS but the 7.8 update that brought some features of the new OS to the existing devices.
We have seen some really good Windows Phone 8-based devices launch in the recent past, and we recently reviewed the HTC Windows Phone 8X (read our review here). We can’t wait to see the Nokia Lumia 920 and the Samsung Ativ S in action as well. We have also compared the top Windows Phone 8 devices available in the market.
