Windows Store Surpasses 13,000 Apps Already
Microsoft's just-launched Windows Store for Windows 8 has already surpassed 13,000 apps.
The Next Web reports that as of early Wednesday morning, Microsoft's Windows Store contained 12,895 applications. That's roughly 2,895 additional applications that have been added since the Windows 8 storefront reached its 10,000 app mark just eight days prior. Break that down to a daily total, and an average of 362 apps have been added roughly every 24 hours.
WinAppUpdate, which has been keeping track of the tally, said that the daily numbers are actually down. Since the day before Windows 8 officially hit the market (October 26), Microsoft was adding around 500 apps per day – that's how Windows Store zoomed past the 10,000 mark so quickly once it went public.
At the current growth rate, the Windows Store will likely scoot past the 20,000 mark by the end of November or early December. Then again, Microsoft may suddenly push to stock up even more paid apps before the holiday season kicks in, hoping to cash in on the Christmas cheer as consumers receive their bonuses, year-end tips and early gift cards.
But as WinAppupdate points out, there's a lot of "junk" piling up in the Windows Store, similar to the littering problem facing Google Play and what flooded Apple's App Store in the early days. "A ton of the apps that have come into the Windows Store over the last week are just promiscuous apps," the site writes. "I’m not seeing stellar apps that are platform exclusives, and more importantly, I’m seeing a dearth of, well, productivity apps."
What Microsoft needs is developers that will take a chance with both Windows 8 and Windows RT – to take advantage of their unique environments and the overall four-screen experience. Right now developers are seemingly testing the waters, getting familiar with the territory, and many may even be waiting for the Windows 8 consumer base to grow before jumping into the development pool with everything they've got. Some of the more popular desktop apps revised for the Modern UI interface -- including a few of Microsoft's own tools -- feel half-based as it is.
As The Next Web states, Microsoft needs to use its resources to make sure that the Windows Store is not only full, but "full of the right stuff" and not stocked full of thrown-together apps just for the sake of a large, impressive app count. Even more, what the store really needs is a Modern UI version of Halo 4 for PC which, unfortunately, won't happen anytime in the immediate future. Boo hiss.

Either way, here's hoping to the success of the Windows Store for competitions sake!
Either way, here's hoping to the success of the Windows Store for competitions sake!
Windows 8, maybe.. Windows Phone 8 is pretty good and I just can't stress that enough.
I'm a fandroid by default but I'm getting a Lumia 920.
on the desktop, hell yea
on a notebook... not so much
notebook with a touch screen, pretty good
notebook that transforms into a tablet hell yea, perfect
on a tablet - arm - not so good, better options, but not a horrifically bad thing
on a tablet - intel - its a laptop without a built in keyboard
1) apps have a bad name for being 'cheap', and big companies do not want that
2) ... there is a freaking desktop which works perfectly fine with legacy code! Why reinvent the wheel!?!?!?
3) productivity apps typically need to have heavy multitasking functionality, being able to have 2 apps up at once, with a divider that only fits in one set portion of the screen, does not cut it. Productivity apps are what is needed if apps are to take off.
4) limiting RT to apps is going to hurt the sales of RT devices, it is not going to do much to encourage RT growth.
All that said, there are a few apps I enjoy using/playing on a regular basis. But really it is only a few, all of which happen to be free apps.
To be fair, this is to be expected for an app store that has not even go live for more than a month. But the urge to keep claiming the store has lots of apps while in actuality it has only filler apps is counter-productive. Give it 6 months, then look at how many actual "must-have" apps it has.
For RT, you are right - but this may be for Windows 8 (Not Windows RT). In which case it does have Angry Birds, Jetpack Joyride (Not big into "microgames", but I've grabbed this at work and home.... One of my favorite time killers xD).
I think that if Microsoft leverages it's ecosystem (X-Box, Phone, PC) and continues to make it easier for developers to cross develop between platforms that there is a lot of promise. Of course, that means that would need to effectively leverage that advantage and possibly offer some sort of incentive for cross-platform development (free dev kits, reduced store price if application is on released on multiple platforms, with Microsoft % reducing per platform. 30% on 1, 20% on 2, and 15% on 3 platforms, maybe?)
Give it 3-6 months to see how many "real" apps come out (the ones that matter to the technical knowledgeable consumer or productivity user).
I just got the Lumia 920, and it is an excellent phone. and it has got the 90% apps that matter to me. Nokia maps/drive (excellent), Office for reading docs on the move, kindle for my books, Nokia music (brilliant service), weather, news are covered as well. Just missing an application from my bank.
Email access, social network access etc all built in.
I also use Windows 8 for desktops. nothing wrong with it. I have pinned my most used programs to the "start menu" and can hit the shortcut key for desktop if I need to go there. I mean seriously, when your computer starts up where to you go 1st? willing to bet 95% of users either go to the start menu or double click a shortcut on the desktop to launch the program they need. now you start up in the start menu that can contain all your shortcuts and most used programs (and even docs).
I swear all the haters of Win8 are just scared of anything new.
Agreed. Those people just love to whine, expecting others to give a crap about their petty complaints. Just a bunch of babies who need to grow up. Windows 8 is a fantastic OS, whether or not you like the "Metro" side of things.
I thought this too, until I actually used the RTM version of Windows 8. I have found it very easy to get used to with a mouse and keyboard and have also found that I like it quite a bit, even more than Windows 7. Everyone complains about Apple never reinventing themselves (iOS looks the same since v1), but then complains when Microsoft does it.
Use it, for more than a day, and NOT as VM. Run it on your main machine or secondary machine for a week or more.
That'd be a higher percentage than what Appstoer and Android store have so not bad