Microsoft confirms its Windows Phone mobile computing platform now hosts more than 300,000 apps
Microsoft, the world's largest software company, is fighting for dominance in the mobile field after strengthening its hold in the software business. The Redmond-based tech giant confirmed its Windows Phone mobile computing platform now hosts more than 300,000 apps, which is an important milestone for the struggling mobile OS as it directly competes against Google's dominant Android platform and Apple's iOS.
The news of Windows Phone riding the road of success with over 300,000 apps comes via Microsoft's "By The Numbers" webpage, where the software giant updates all its milestones in different services such as the number of people using Windows, OneDrive, Office, Skype and much more. The webpage features a Windows 8 style Live Tile layout and clicking on each tile gives users access to more information about a particular topic.
"We have more than 300,000 Windows Phone apps today and the Windows Phone Store continues to grow," a Microsoft spokesperson told The Next Web confirming the new milestone. "In the past year alone the Windows and Windows Phone app catalog has grown 94%, while the number of active developers has grown by 50%."
The company achieved its first milestone of 100,000 apps on Windows Phone platform in June of last year. In December, the company reported 200,000 apps and continuing the momentum of growth, it added another 100,000 in the following six months.
Comparatively, Apple and Google are far ahead in the competition of hosting maximum number of apps for consumer use. Apple reported in January that it hosts more than 1 million apps on its App Store, which are bifurcated into 24 distinct categories for users to sift through easily. As of July 2013, Google had already surpassed the one million mark. Its open source nature allows developers to build more apps and it is the largest mobile OS powering most smartphones.
The growth for Windows Phone platform is slow but steady. Nokia is currently the only smartphone maker to support the OS.
