Microsoft is desperate that its app store can’t be compared to a Soviet era supermarket, devoid of fresh apps, even of basic staples like Facebook, Foursquare and Farmville. It’s a problem that previously dogged Microsoft Phone hardware partner Nokia and its Symbian OS Ovi Store – looking like a poor relation to the Android and Apple app stores.
In a bid to build up support for Windows Phone, Microsoft has been underwriting development of apps which it deems important for users. Also Microsoft has gone as far as actually developing the Windows Phone Facebook app independently and getting Facebook to certify it as the official Facebook app.
The Foursquare app for Windows Phone would not have been written right now unless the financial help was offered, says Foursquare head of business development Holger Luedorf. He explained “We have very limited resources, and we have to put them toward the platforms with the biggest bang for our buck, but we are a social network and it is incredibly important for us to be available on every platform.”
Microsoft has been trying to crack the mobile market for years. The latest of their phone operating systems v7.5, AKA Mango, has been very favourably received by both media commentators and users alike. With all these positives and having some sort of momentum building right now Microsoft wants to make sure the Windows Phone Marketplace is stocked with all the apps people are talking about so that it’s not a weak link in the chain.
The hardware standards for Mango phones seem to be good; Windows Phone has quite a high minimum specification. You shouldn’t get lumbered with an unresponsive Mango phone, as illustrated by the nimble entry level Nokia 710 (1.4GHz CPU), available on PAYG upgrade for £119. There is a lower specced Windows Phone coming from Nokia; the Nokia 610, it's going to be made available shortly but pricing estimates are all over the place (up to £228 RRP!). The 800MHz CPU equipped Nokia 610 will run a reduced feature version of Mango called Tango.
Microsoft still has notable apps absent from its store including Instagram, Pandora music and Zynga games. However they have all the standards most people want, use and have heard of on other platforms such as; YouTube, Kindle, Angry Birds etc. In total Microsoft has now got over 70,000 apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. I just did a random test search at the store for “notepad” and got over 100 notes and post-it note type apps in the results, seems like enough choice! Current figures for Apple and Android stores roughly total 600,000 and 400,000 apps respectively. Microsoft has quite a strong selection of Windows Phone games that come off the back of Xbox 360 popularity. People tend to upgrade their phones quicker than they buy new computers so the phone OS wars may have more abrupt swings and turns ahead.Can Windows Phone climb above either Android or iOS now?
News just in; Microsoft spokesman Larry Lieberman blogged "today's Windows Phone applications and games will run on the next major version of Windows Phone". That's Windows Phone 8 Apollo.
