Microsoft announces 130K apps on Windows Phone Store, strong progress made in 2012

Microsoft has announced that the company has passed the 130,000 app marker on the Windows Phone Store. In a blog post on the Windows Phone Developer blog, Todd Brix goes into some detail about how the platform is progressing, as well as how the year 2012 was for the company's mobile machine.

Highlighting a ChangeWave Research piece, Brix proudly unveils that Windows Phone owners are more likely to be "very satisfied" with the experience than Android - 53 percent against Android's 48 percent. This isn't a massive surprise, especially with the sheer amount of complaints that riddle the Android platform. Windows Phone has its own issues, but they're slowly being addressed.

Microsoft has reportedly managed to grow its total addressable market by 90 percent in 2012, leading to leaps in marketshare (by leaps, we mean small steps to iOS and Android standards) in a number of markets. What's more interesting to note for developers is the 75 percent increase in app downloads, 91 percent increase in paid app revenue, as well as the 1 billionth transaction being eclipsed. Windows Phone is averaging 55 downloads per consumer.

WP Dev Count

The developing community has been growing rather rapidly as well. Developer registrations are up by over 40,000 in the first 90 days since the release of Windows Phone 8. 15,000 new apps that take full advantage of new functionality are available to consumers, providing a rich experience with advanced features. It's all starting to sound like the foundations of a cute love story.

It's an exciting point in time as the 130,000 app count is expected to surge with the Windows Phone 8 SDK being downloaded more than 500,000 times in less than four months (October 2012) - not bad going. We're still soaking up the goodness of Mobile World Congress, so after the event passes we'll be sure to join the Windows Phone team and push through a successful 2013.

For more details, head on over to the blog post and read up on the magic.

Source: Windows Phone Developer Blog

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.