A Year Later–The Windows Phone 7 Numbers That Matter

forgotAgain · on March 31, 2011

The Windows Phone Developer Tools, consisting of Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone and Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone have been downloaded over 1.5 million times.

So basically there have been about as many downloads of the developers tools as there have been phones shipped?

TomOfTTB · on March 31, 2011

And probably dramatically more than have sold. Though some have questioned it I still think the Windows Phone Facebook App is a good indicator of how many phones have been sold.

It's true that you don't have to install that app to use Windows Phone 7. But Facebook is pretty integral to the Windows Phone 7 experience so the Facebook App's growth is a good indicator of how well Windows Phone 7 is doing. On January 26th there were 366,000 users. Today it's 549,042.

ja27 · on March 31, 2011

I was at a conference last week with 100 developers, at least 50 of which use mostly Microsoft development tools. A speaker from Microsoft asked who had a Windows Phone 7 device. He was the only one. Even gadget nuts like me that carry multiple devices didn't have one.

I know about 6 people that have them, but they're all either Microsoft employees, Microsoft MVPs, or are married to one.

TomOfTTB · on March 31, 2011

This, to me, is the problem. I didn't expect Windows Phone 7 to win over Android or iPhone developers. But if you are a Microsoft developer it's hard to start developing for Android or the iPhone. Because you have to use a different language, different tools, a different environment, etc...

Given that I expected Microsoft developers to jump at Windows Phone 7 because it was an easy way for them to translate their skills to a mobile platform. But as someone who knows a lot of MS developers they all seem pretty apathetic. More than anything else that makes me doubt the platform's long term future.

nkohari · on March 31, 2011

It's a vicious cycle. If I felt that the platform had a future, I would devote some of my .NET abilities towards developing for it. But I don't, so I don't bother.

Just like with the Zune, Microsoft came too late to the party with a reasonably good product that no one cared about.

rbanffy · on March 31, 2011

No sales numbers?

robin_reala · on March 31, 2011

Apparently that’s not a number that matters.

ihumanable · on March 31, 2011

Am I missing something? 11,500 apps and an average of 12 apps per end user. Those seem like abysmal numbers to me.

According to Appsfire http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/28/appsfire_survey/ the average for iOS is 88 apps per user, 63 free, 25 paid.

Asymco http://www.asymco.com/2011/01/16/more-than-60-apps-have-been... puts this number at 60, but still.

This very old report, http://www.intomobile.com/2010/09/10/study-iphone-users-down... puts Android at 25 per user, which is probably higher now, but I couldn't find any new figures.

daviddisco · on March 31, 2011

The article said 12 apps per month not 12 apps total.

scdc · on March 31, 2011

I noted the "[developer] tools were free, would always be free" line. Why does Apple charge $99/yr? Seems like it might be a quality filter. Certainly doesn't stop the fart apps, but it seems like a nice indicator of "I'm serious about this." Or maybe it helps cover hosting charges of the free apps? Just greediness?

http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/

redacted · on March 31, 2011

How do these numbers compare to iOS or Android?

Raphael · on March 31, 2011

"12 – Customers love our apps."