Microsoft is aiming to close the app gap on Windows Phone, and has released statistics critical for developers waiting to make the jump to the platform.
In a detailed blog post, Todd Brix, General Manager of Windows Apps and Store Team, has revealed that it has been a successful year on the apps front as the company saw a 30 percent increase in users and a 110 percent rise in app downloads and sales. Additionally, developer registrations have also increased.
Most of these can be attributed to the falling prices of smartphones and the recent changes to developer registration fees, which received a positive response. The main points highlighted by Todd include the carrier billing ability in emerging countries, in-app advertising and purchases, better app discovery, and easier development efforts.
The recently announced carrier billing feature for the Windows Phone store can be an important advantage for Windows Phone developers as inexpensive smartphones running on Microsoft"s OS are quite popular in emerging markets, and the usual payment systems are not very widely used there.
With Windows 10 releasing in fall, Microsoft is probably hoping to get more developers to create apps which will eventually run on both the desktop and mobile.
Source: Microsoft