Windows Phone Marketplace hits 50,000 published apps

The Windows Phone Marketplace was launched earlier this year and until recently wasn’t making the news from the mobile industry.  This week, the marketplace hit an “important milestone” as it flew right passed 50,000 mobile apps available for download.  The milestone is something to cheer about as the Windows Phone platform is starting to finally appear on smartphones in the United States.  Since August the market has gone from 40,000 to 50,000 apps in as little as 40 days.  A lot can be said about the Windows Phone operating system, but the jump in published apps might have been because Microsoft rolled at a major incentive program for developers a couple of months ago.

Of all the categories in the marketplace, 57 percent of all the apps can be found in just four of them.  The largest concentration of apps is in the “entertainment” category, with “books and reference”, “games” and “tools and productivity” finishing out that list.  The four most popular categories are only separated by less than 1,000 apps so the numbers could swing very easily each month.  Of all the apps available in the market, about 58 percent of them are free, while you will find yourself paying for just 29 percent of the apps.  The remaining 14 percent of the apps are available with free trials, before having to pay.

With the Windows Phone platform not really gaining much in terms of market share, Android and iOS continue to blast away at the top of just about every list in the mobile world.  Even though the Windows Phone Marketplace is reportedly adding about 250 apps per day, the market is still way behind the Android Market, as well as, the Apple iTunes App Store.  A former executive at Microsoft has released his thoughts as to why Microsoft is still behind in the game.  Charlie Kindel, says that even though Windows Phone is a “superior product”, device makers and mobile carriers are simply not pushing the handsets like they are with Android and iOS powered phones.

Consumers just “do what they are told by advertisers and sales people”, he said and advertisers just take the easy road and support Android.  Until that changes, Kindel said Microsoft Windows Phone platform will not get the exposure they need to survive in the highly competitive mobile world.