However, this doesn’t really scare Microsoft, as the maker of this platform, even a bit. With this company’s new plan to roll out the newest installment Windows Phone 8 to the market, along with the WP handsets and tablets that support it, Microsoft is ready to build Windows Phone platform as a new promising home for many smartphone vendors that are interested to join in the army.
Anyway, if the use of Windows Phone OS is increasing steadily in the market, this means Windows Phone marketplace is also moving in the same direction. As it’s reported by multiple sources, now the app collection in the Windows Phone marketplace has increased to almost 90.000 apps.This number is gathered by WP7applist.com through 65 different marketplaces that of course, serve Windows Phone-based apps, where there are also 12 remaining marketplaces that haven’t been analyzed yet, which means in total, the 100.000 app mark could finally be surpassed anytime soon.
Compared to Apple App Store, the 100.000 app mark actually had been passed by Apple long time ago, specifically on 14 October 2009, while Android celebrated the same amount of apps one year later after Apple. In total, App Store has currently had 600.000 amounts of apps, while Android has collected around 500.000 apps in its Android market (now Google Play store).
So we should see what’s gonna happen next to Windows Phone OS when the latest installment, Windows Phone 8, finally arrives in the market.
source: WP7AppList via PhoneArena
WP Handsets' Market Share Rises to 3-6%, While Android Share Keeps Increasing Wildly
Apparently, having been called as a small player in the current mobile phone industry doesn’t make Nokia and Microsoft feel inferior at all. These 2 companies, which currently are working together in a WP handsets project, have formed such a solid collaboration in bringing Windows Phone experience to smartphone users. Even though the amount of share that they’ve gathered in the market is considered small compared to what Android and Apple iOS have gained, slowly but sure, Nokia and Microsoft alliance can finally deliver a steady movement in the increasing rate of Windows Phone market share.
According to the recent report gathered and published by Kantar WorldPanel,
Nokia and Microsoft’s WP handsets have seen their market share increase during last year to mid-April, from less than 2% to almost 3% – 6%. This shows how the stubbornness of Nokia to stick with Windows Phone OS on its recent smartphones, instead of using the insanely popular Android OS, has brought a great fortune to this company.
However, unlike the Android OS, the increasing rate of Windows Phone OS in the mobile OS market share can be considered really slow because when Android OS was introduced to the market, the market share of this platform exploded significantly, thanks to the backs of many cell phone vendors to this platform.Anyway, if Windows Phone OS just felt a steady increase of share in the market, then Android got so much bigger than that. Based on the same reports, during the last 12 weeks until mid-April, the share of Android OS has been increasing significantly in some particular countries, giving this platform huge boosts of 72% in Spain, 62% in Germany and 49% in Italy.
On the other hand with Apple’s iOS, even though this tech giant just managed to grasp a huge market share in the US and UK, thanks to the launch of iPhone 4S last year, the market share of this platform is starting to slip in Europe continent.
Meanwhile, the maker of Blackberry phones, RIM, as always, continues to lose its influence in the market as its share in the market has been decreasing significantly three times during April 2011 - April 2012 from 9% to only 3%. However, with the newly launch of Blackberry 10, hopefully, this might bring a good fortune for this company in the future.
source: Reuters via PhoneArena
