Windows Phone Store Crosses 200,000 Apps, Notification Center Likely to Arrive in Windows Phone 8.1
Here's a couple of good news for Windows Phone 8 users: the Windows Phone Store now has over 200,000 apps, and the Windows Phone 8.1 update that's due next year is likely to come with a notification center.
In June 2012, the Windows Phone Store reached 100,000 apps; the number then went up to 125,000 in October the same year. Fast forward to now, and the number has crossed 200,000. This detail is revealed in a post on the Windows Phone Developer Blog where Microsoft urges developers to publish their apps to take advantage of the holiday season. Another statistic: the Windows Store on Windows 8 / 8.1 has surpassed 12 million transactions per day. According to unofficial tracker MetroStore Scanner, the Windows Store now has 137,467 worldwide.
For those interested, the Apple App Store and Google Play Store have each cracked the 1 million mark in October and July respectively. Comparatively, the Windows Phone Store is much smaller, though let’s no forget that Microsoft’s mobile OS share is also very much smaller compared to the top two players. Here’s one data point: According to NetMarketShare, the top three mobile OSes in 2013 are iOS (57.1%), Android (27.43%), and Windows Phone (1.06%).
Still, Microsoft is pressing on. In recent months, big-name apps, such as Instagram, Waze, and Vine, have arrived on Windows Phone 8. On the devices front, consumers have more choices with the likes of the Lumia 1520, 1320, and 525 from Nokia, which will soon be part of Microsoft. On the OS front, development of the Windows Phone 8.1 update is well underway, and as reported by The Verge, it’d be revealed during Microsoft’s Build Developer Conference in April, 2014. New features include a notification center, an Apple Siri-like personal digital assistant named ‘Cortana’, and on-screen Windows Phone 8.1 buttons.
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