Microsoft today in a quiet announcement said that it has now reached 45,000 apps for its Windows Phone Marketplace. This however was over shadowed with Apple crossing 500,000 apps in its iTunes App store. Microsoft previously reached 40,000 apps in mid-November. The site All about windows phone who track Windows Phone apps, report that their own software indicates 45,610 items have been published to the Marketplace.
Of these, 14,261 were added in the last 90 days and 5,837 were added in the last 30 days. The apps come from over 10,000 publishers. The site says that Windows market place should reach 50,000 mark by early next year. Microsoft’s marketplace has been growing steadily and has a lot to catch up with Apple’s store which today announced its 500,000th app in its store.
Apple customers have downloaded more than 18 billion apps in total and download more than 1 billion per month. Microsoft’s steady pace is also attributed to its scrutiny in approving quality applications. Windows Phone 7 launched on October 21 with 1,000 applications available in its first week on the market. A year later and the Marketplace is growing with 40,000 apps. Microsoft appears to be building up a good momentum amongst application developers. Microsoft recently finalized its Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” update and has distributed it to 100% of existing eligble devices. Microsoft’s device partners have also started to release a number of new Windows Phone 7.5 devices for the holiday season, including the HTC Radar, HTC TITAN and Samsung Focus S.
via Source.