Windows Store Hits 100,000 Apps In 8 Months

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Microsoft announced today that the Windows Store has just surpassed the 100,000 apps mark in just over eight months.

That was fast. Windows 8 was launched only last October. How fast? Google took longer to reach that point -- roughly two years after the Android Market formally opened for business. And it took about a year and a half for the iPad to garner 100,000 iPad-specific apps. "The platform has been out for 453 days, with developers getting access to its software development kit in January 2010, on the day the product was first announced," CNET wrote at the time.
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Well that's awkward, I haven't been into the Windows 8 app store in 8 months...

Which is strange, because I have three desktops and two tablets that are Windows 8 in my home. :)
 
The problem to me is they don't even have any bigger titles that do very well on other platforms. I'm speaking from casual gaming e.g. Candy Crush Saga or The Simpsons: Tapped Out. As well as these titles are doing and not available on Windows App Store just utterly confuses me. I'm not saying this is why you buy Windows 8, the Windows 8 Apps Store has crap for selection. Then again I find Windows 8 apps, very annoying, no familiar close or minimize buttons in the top right corner. At times I feel lost and I know I'm not. I use Alt+F4 to close or WinKey+D to bring me to the desktop. Then some things install as an app and you can setup shortcuts in taskbar others not so much. Things should be seemless. They are not. They have a lot of problems if people are not developing for their new UI.
 
I still find it funny that the almighty Microsoft is using the ter "Apps".
 
Krenum said:
I still find it funny that the almighty Microsoft is using the ter "Apps".
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Apps = Applications (App........s) BAM, contraction like a bawss. I've been saying apps for over a decade at the very least...

180490700b.jpg
 
MikeTrike said:
Apps = Applications (App........s) BAM, contraction like a bawss. I've been saying apps for over a decade at the very least...
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Technically correct, however, most people associate the term "Apps" with useless 99 cent crap like fart machines, flashlights and websites that should just be viewed with a web browser. I can't help but feel that Apple sort of tainted/wrecked the term.
 
pxc said:
lulz, MS predicted 100,000 apps as a target 6 months ago. http://m.techrepublic.com/blog/wind...own-to-100000-windows-8-apps-falls-short/7199

Even paying developers $100 per app didn't cause the spike a healthy, growing app store receives normally without incentives at all.
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This app store didn't even exist a year ago, and sure there's lots of junk in it. Looking at the App Counter app, it's showing an average growth rate of 726 apps per day for the last two weeks, obviously that many quality apps can't be produced for ANY platform at that rate.

We'll see how this goes, a number of important apps were announced last week like Facebook and Flipboard and there's probably going to be some cross over between the Xbone and 8.1 to more games into the Windows Store. Plus there's a lot interesting things apps can do in 8.1 that aren't possible in iOS and Android. Multiple monitors, multitasking, apps can even create multiple instances of themselves if I understand correctly, like IE 11 Metro. And then Metro Office should be out in the next year.

Lot's of issues but a lot in the works that no one has seen yet.
 
MikeTrike said:
Apps = Applications (App........s) BAM, contraction like a bawss. I've been saying apps for over a decade at the very least...
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Yes Yes, I know what It means, But the term "APPS" has always been an Apple thing. Having Microsoft use it , is funny, being that they have always been a direct competitor. :p
 
Why do practically all W8 apps look the same? Are developers locked into a certain design scheme?
 
heatlesssun said:
This app store didn't even exist a year ago, and sure there's lots of junk in it. Looking at the App Counter app, it's showing an average growth rate of 726 apps per day for the last two weeks, obviously that many quality apps can't be produced for ANY platform at that rate.
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Junk and ports from other platforms. That's my guess.
 
heatlesssun said:
We'll see how this goes, a number of important apps were announced last week like Facebook and Flipboard and there's probably going to be some cross over between the Xbone and 8.1 to more games into the Windows Store.
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Flipboard - that would be awesome. :) Definitely have to keep an eye out on that.

Krenum said:
Yes Yes, I know what It means, But the term "APPS" has always been an Apple thing. Having Microsoft use it , is funny, being that they have always been a direct competitor.
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Apps were around before Apple. Apple just brought it into a daily term with the App Store (which they have sued to keep the name, but IIRC, it was knocked down because it was just a generic term). App's are applications, and have been referred to that way for a long time. But, lately, people have been changing from app to program, as people have started associating the term 'app' or 'application' with a cheap, tablet/phone based program rather than a desktop application.... So, Apple does get some credit, but it's not an 'Apple thing' by any means.
 
Krenum said:
Yes Yes, I know what It means, But the term "APPS" has always been an Apple thing. Having Microsoft use it , is funny, being that they have always been a direct competitor. :p
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I've always found *that* funny, thinking it's an Apple thing. Am I the only one that remembers the term "killer app" being used quite frequently to refer to non-Apple software on any number of other platforms?

When talking about a game console that didn't have that one great game that made you buy it, people would say it "lacked a killer app." Not new or uncommon usage at all. Not to make any assumptions about you, but I generally find that people who feel that way about the term haven't been around tech very long, and therefore don't understand that it's been around and in common usage for non-Apple devices for a long time.
 
indeed you show your lite age if you think app is tied to apple. one of this ilk also prolly thinks apple invented the tablet or smart phone or mp3 player or... internet! :)

now see there is one very upset Al Gore wanting words with you. hehe
 
MikeTrike said:
That's actually good news, because at least a flashlight app is useful. lol
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Don't find the flashlight apps very useful on my desktop.
The 24" LCD is a bit heavy to carry around, and the power cord is too short.
 
nutzo said:
Don't find the flashlight apps very useful on my desktop.
The 24" LCD is a bit heavy to carry around, and the power cord is too short.
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I don't use any apps on my desktop or tablets, so it doesn't matter either way for me. lol
 
Mr. Snrub said:
" Not new or uncommon usage at all. Not to make any assumptions about you, but I generally find that people who feel that way about the term haven't been around tech very long, and therefore don't understand that it's been around and in common usage for non-Apple devices for a long time.
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Well I was born in 82 and all through elementary school using apple Macintosh's all I heard was application, the term "Killer App" sounds familiar and was probably widely used in the late 80's into the 90's. I seem to recall the term "App" being used strickley for things associated with Apple products (unlike Microsoft who uses the term "Program or Program files", not because of "App-le" but because Apple calls their programs Applications. Hence why Microsoft using a term that Apple made popular is funny and why Microsoft always proclaims themselves to be innovative and original. Ha, I really shouldn't have to explain it, lets just move on. :p
 
xX326Xx said:
The problem to me is they don't even have any bigger titles that do very well on other platforms. I'm speaking from casual gaming e.g. Candy Crush Saga or The Simpsons: Tapped Out. As well as these titles are doing and not available on Windows App Store just utterly confuses me. I'm not saying this is why you buy Windows 8, the Windows 8 Apps Store has crap for selection. Then again I find Windows 8 apps, very annoying, no familiar close or minimize buttons in the top right corner. At times I feel lost and I know I'm not. I use Alt+F4 to close or WinKey+D to bring me to the desktop. Then some things install as an app and you can setup shortcuts in taskbar others not so much. Things should be seemless. They are not. They have a lot of problems if people are not developing for their new UI.
Click to expand...

I'm also noticing that a lot of apps are wrappers for existing capabilities. There's like 20 Facebook apps and they're all shit. I wish Facebook would make an official Windows 8 app because Facebook on IE10/11 on touchscreen is terrible.
 
Azhar said:
I wish Facebook would make an official Windows 8 app because Facebook on IE10/11 on touchscreen is terrible.
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Facebook is coming, was announced at BUILD last week, no timeline on the release at this point.
 
Azhar said:
I'm also noticing that a lot of apps are wrappers for existing capabilities. There's like 20 Facebook apps and they're all shit. I wish Facebook would make an official Windows 8 app because Facebook on IE10/11 on touchscreen is terrible.
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The problem with saying stuff like this is that pretty much all apps on all mobile platforms are basic things like flash light apps or wrappers for existing services / websites. Is there some sort of killer app you cannot live without on your android or ios device? The main function of the phones browse web, check email, text, etc.. pretty much all of it comes with the OS.

In fact personally I think 99% of all apps are stupid. Why code an app for amazon, newegg, etc, why the heck not just make your mobile site not suck balls? Then it should work on all devices without the need for apps, I think apps now days mostly are just making it more expensive to develop when you need to do as said, crappy ports to each OS.

The big problem with windows 8 is not lack of apps in the windows store its lack of ability of MS to motivate real app development done on x86 / desktop to move the big programs into metro, and as I said many times before they need to make metro for windows 7 if they want that to happen. Not screwing up xbone as they are doing would also help them.
 
rudy said:
The big problem with windows 8 is not lack of apps in the windows store its lack of ability of MS to motivate real app development done on x86 / desktop to move the big programs into metro, and as I said many times before they need to make metro for windows 7 if they want that to happen. Not screwing up xbone as they are doing would also help them.
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We've talked about this before and while it would be nice if Metro apps could run on Windows 7, that would require a rewrite of Windows 7. Heck, even apps targeted for 8.1 aren't going to be backwards compatible with 8, indeed the reason why 8.1 is a free update is because 8 has to go away in order to develop apps with the expanded 8.1 API which is pretty critical to get adjustable app resizing and so forth.

We're only 8 months into this and Modern UI app development is just a new animal. Look at how long it's taking Microsoft to get Office for Metro out, they're saying now that it won't be out until 2014.
 
Krenum said:
I seem to recall the term "App" being used strickley for things associated with Apple products (unlike Microsoft who uses the term "Program or Program files", not because of "App-le" but because Apple calls their programs Applications.
Click to expand...
Though Apple has used the term "application" almost exclusively throughout the years (they do a pretty good job on consistent messaging), Microsoft's used the terms interchangeably.

Apple only started using the term "app" for desktop applications in its messaging fairly recently.
 
heatlesssun said:
This app store didn't even exist a year ago, and sure there's lots of junk in it. Looking at the App Counter app, it's showing an average growth rate of 726 apps per day for the last two weeks, obviously that many quality apps can't be produced for ANY platform at that rate.

We'll see how this goes, a number of important apps were announced last week like Facebook and Flipboard and there's probably going to be some cross over between the Xbone and 8.1 to more games into the Windows Store. Plus there's a lot interesting things apps can do in 8.1 that aren't possible in iOS and Android. Multiple monitors, multitasking, apps can even create multiple instances of themselves if I understand correctly, like IE 11 Metro. And then Metro Office should be out in the next year.

Lot's of issues but a lot in the works that no one has seen yet.
Click to expand...

Crossover between XBOX and 8.1, myass. this gimmick of trying to push the Xbox brand as cross-platform turned out to be a lie when they got all the hopes of WindowsnPhone users up, and the same is happening again based on the silence from MS at BUILD after they hyped up xplatform and XBONE integration and dev opportunities and developers paid big money to go to BUILD hoping to hear the announcement and get info firsthand.

go read Paul thurrott's wrapup of BUILD. The cross platform and unity dream is a lie even MS is having trouble telling with a straight face anymore.
 
DPI said:
Crossover between XBOX and 8.1, myass. this gimmick of trying to push the Xbox brand as cross-platform turned out to be a lie when they got all the hopes of WindowsnPhone users up, and the same is happening again based on the silence from MS at BUILD after they hyped up xplatform and XBONE integration and dev opportunities and developers paid big money to go to BUILD hoping to hear the announcement and get info firsthand.

go read Paul thurrott's wrapup of BUILD. The cross platform and unity dream is a lie even MS is having trouble telling with a straight face anymore.
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The is capability there: http://www.gamesradar.com/project-spark-news-release-date/.
 
Bullshit. I was in the Windows Store in Century City last month and I didn't even see 100 apps, let alone 100,000.
 
Windows 8 thread brings out the trolls again. Its funny for M$ to use the term app, though Android uses it too. This was the fastest store to this many apps, yet its too slow and most apps are probably useless. Sounds like if M$ lost anything, it was the PR war.
 
rudy said:
The problem with saying stuff like this is that pretty much all apps on all mobile platforms are basic things like flash light apps or wrappers for existing services / websites. Is there some sort of killer app you cannot live without on your android or ios device? The main function of the phones browse web, check email, text, etc.. pretty much all of it comes with the OS.
.
Click to expand...

Endomondo. Killer app for the Android OS IMO (maybe iOS as well, I don't honestly know). You could probably do the same thing with a mobile website I guess, but an app is much easier to use.
 
potency said:
Bullshit. I was in the Windows Store in Century City last month and I didn't even see 100 apps, let alone 100,000.
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I assure you as a Windows 8 user on many computers and a Surface Pro owner there are a lot more than 100 apps. A shit ton more.

Windows 8.1 does a better job promoting apps in the Store than 8 did anyways. 8's Store was boring and unless you knew what you wanted, a hassle to browse.
 
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