The Windows Phone app ecosystem had a big day today with the launch of the long awaited Instagram and Waze apps. Microsoft also released some new numbers on the overall Windows Phone app platform to Neowin, stating that the Windows Phone Store has now seen a total of 3 billion app downloads.
The numbers, while still well behind the number of downloads on the iOS and Android platforms, shows that there a measurable amount of increased activity on the Windows Phone app front compared to the past few years. The stats include word that 10 million Windows Phone app transactions occur each day.
The company also stated that since the launch of Windows Phone 8 a year ago, the amount of monthly app revenue that"s generated has gone up 181 percent, while overall app downloads have gone up 290 percent. Specific numbers were not revealed, but Microsoft did indicate that about 190,000 apps are in the Windows Phone Store and 500 new apps are added to the store each day.
Microsoft said that sales of Nokia"s Lumia smartphones have gone up 366 percent just in North America over the past year. Overall, shipments of Windows Phone devices are up 48 percent in Europe compared to a year ago. The annual growth of smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2013 went up 178 percent for Windows Phone devices.
The numbers are definitely encouraging and shows that Microsoft has a good chance of increasing its ecosystem market share against those of Apple and Google. The big question: Will that trend continue after Microsoft fully acquires Nokia"s smartphone business, which has generated the lion share of Windows Phone hardware sales?
Source: Microsoft email | Image via Microsoft