Microsoft is claiming 11,500 apps on the Windows Phone 7 app store with more than 100,000 downloads a month of the Windows Phone Developer Tools.
Over 1.5 million copies of the Windows Phone 7 (WP7) developer tools have been downloaded in the last year according to a post on the Windows Phone Team blog by Brandon Watson, a Director at Windows Phone.
According to Watson more than 11,500 applications have been developed for the platform with a mixture of 7,500 paid (65%) and 4,000 free (35%) apps. A ratio which matches the number of paid to free on the iPhone appstore exactly, and is better than Android. Additionally Watson also says there are now 1,100 apps that are generating developer revenue using the Microsoft Advertising Ad Control.
While the figure 11,500 doesn’t sound much, Watson claims the growth to 11,500 is significant and beats all the competition, “(the) ecosystem generated 10,000 apps faster than anyone else, without padding the stats.”
Watson also produced figures for developers. There are 36,000 developers for WP7 and it’s adding 1,200 new developers a week. However, only 40% of those counted as developers by Microsoft have actually produced applications.
“The statistic that gets me the most excited and speaks the most to the work my team has yet to do is the percentage of registered developers who have published their apps,” Watson wrote.
“Forty per cent of the fully registered developer population has published an app or game, yet 60% have not yet published. That’s incredibly exciting when you consider the amount of creativity which is still forthcoming.”
Watson also says the average WP7 user is downloading 12 applications each month. But what we don’t know is just how many are downloading the apps and what percentage are free and what are paid. Until we get some good figures for WP7 sales the platform is always going to be a bit of a gamble for any developer.
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