5 ms·

Windows 8 store apps pass 20,000 mark, almost 18,000 are free

40 points by Reltair 14y ago

ggk 14y ago
Does the free/paid ratio tells us (developer) that the windows8 app market will be more similar to Android than the apple app store?
- T-Winsnes 14y ago
  It probably just means the quality of the apps are currently fairly low. Once there has been a bit more time for developers to create apps, the quality and the paid/free ratio will go up.
- mtgx 14y ago
  Most of them are probably just reworked websites.
- SmileyKeith 14y ago
  Very interesting point, the major differences in philosophy between OS X & iOS vs Windows & Android. Although I think Android still leans more towards the Apple side of things. It will be interesting to see how the Windows App store evolves on both Windows 8 and Windows phone. Because that percentage of apps being free definitely won't be extremely profitable for developers. Especially if that's what users grow to expect. In the iOS app store people spend a lot of time talking about the race to the bottom and how 99 cent apps are detrimental to people trying to make livings as independent developers. Imagine how much more difficult it could be when the race was to free.
- jdthomas 14y ago
  I was thinking the same thing. The key to a vibrant app ecosystem is making profit for developers. Possibly these apps are making ad money, but yet to be seen.
- Encosia 14y ago
  On the other hand, Angry Birds Space and Star Wars are more expensive in the Windows Store than on the iOS App Store (though I only checked on my iPhone, not on my iPad), and a ton of the top iOS apps these days are free but make their money through in app purchases. At this point, I just assume that an app that's free on iOS is going to annoy me to death with in app purchase gameplay mechanics and nags.
jeswin 14y ago
I find the colored tiles in the store very difficult to skim through. https://twitter.com/TDUupdaterHD/status/271344469108989952/photo/1 https://twitter.com/TDUupdaterHD/status/271344469108989952/p... In other app stores, the white background lets you navigate quickly, as a simple list with icons.
- dmix 14y ago
  I know it's a tired cliche to bash Microsoft for poor UI design, but those small multi-color squares plus horizontal scrolling? Wasn't there someone at some level in the company who could point out how unusable that is?
  - mkr-hn 14y ago
    I know it's hard to conceive, but you might not be the target market. Microsoft probably has people testing these things. I have no trouble skimming it.
    - Samuel_Michon 14y ago
      "Microsoft probably has people testing these things." It sure does. But what does Microsoft do with those recommendations? The company had a group test the Kin devices, too. The group decided the devices were unusable, and Microsoft decided to launch them as-is anyways. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/11/unreleased-internal-microsoft-videos-show-why-kin-crashed-and-burned/ http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/11/unreleased-internal-m...
      - kenjackson 14y ago
        Actually they fixed the perf, which was the main complaint from those videos.
        Samuel_Michon 14y ago
        From the article: "These internal Microsoft videos, provided to Wired by a person who worked on the project, show focus groups testing the ill-fated Kin. According to our source, these are pre-production models that changed very little from the shipping product, although “performance improved some prior to shipping.” Watch them, and you can readily see why the project tanked: Kin phones just weren’t usable."
clarky07 14y ago
So many free apps. There must be some secret I'm missing. My free apps that I've tried just haven't made as much as paid. Note: I haven't made any games with consumable IAP. Other app types with upgrades and ad removal.
- zmmmmm 14y ago
  I would strongly suspect it means many of the apps were funded or sponsored by Microsoft?
  - drivebyacct2 14y ago
    Microsoft funded 20,000 apps? Really?
    - zmmmmm 14y ago
      It wouldn't surprise me if they funded 5,000 at least. Why wouldn't you if you were in their shoes? I think not doing that was one of Google's greatest mistakes with Android.
      - deleted 14y ago
        [deleted]
kenjackson 14y ago
How does this compare to the number of tablet-specific apps for Android?
- Derbasti 14y ago
  Interesting point. However, what I would really like to know is the number of non-trivial apps. Sadly, that is impossible to count. But every platform has its equivalent to fart apps that add no value to the platform whatsoever.
zmmmmm 14y ago
I think Microsoft needs to be careful about playing a numbers game here - even while what you hear quoted all the time about these app stores is numbers, it's the quality and depth of those apps that matters to the end users. Android has a decent number of tablet optimized apps now, but still not one of the half dozen word processors is what I would call high quality, and nearly all of them are ugly. What will make the platform - and what I believe made iOS such a winner on tablets - is that the apps people experienced delighted them. They were beautiful, extremely high quality, well performing. Things you wanted to show to your friends, and you wanted to pay for. I get a feeling Microsoft is very focused on inflating the store numbers, getting the widest coverage of apps they can on there. But if they are doing that at the expense of quality - so that consumer's first experience of the apps they try do not delight them - that will actually be the downfall of it.
- frozenport 14y ago
  Everybody wants quality, but I don't see how giving an industry standard benchmark for web-stores put them at a competitive disadvantage. App count is how we compare stores. Lastly, I don't think anybody at MS takes the number as a 1:1 correlation between actual app numbers, and certainly not as a judgement of app quality.
- Derbasti 14y ago
  Maybe quality is distributed naturally among apps. That would imply that a certain percentage of apps will always veer towards the high quality while a similar percentage will always be rubbish. This would mean that more apps equal more quality. I am inclined to believe in this, if only because natural distributions are so common. (That said, it would be very interesting to compare means and standard deviations between app stores. Would they differ?)
- hessenwolf 14y ago
  Word processors - which one is good that isn't Microsoft Word, remind me? OO is grotesque and slow. Google docs, for the ease of simultaneous editing is fucking awesome (I just watched 4 people simultaneously update our Saturday thanksgiving meal spreadsheet), but the functionality is pretty basic and clumsy to access.

40 points by Reltair 14y ago

ggk 14y ago

Does the free/paid ratio tells us (developer) that the windows8 app market will be more similar to Android than the apple app store?

T-Winsnes 14y ago
It probably just means the quality of the apps are currently fairly low. Once there has been a bit more time for developers to create apps, the quality and the paid/free ratio will go up.
mtgx 14y ago
Most of them are probably just reworked websites.
SmileyKeith 14y ago
Very interesting point, the major differences in philosophy between OS X & iOS vs Windows & Android. Although I think Android still leans more towards the Apple side of things. It will be interesting to see how the Windows App store evolves on both Windows 8 and Windows phone. Because that percentage of apps being free definitely won't be extremely profitable for developers. Especially if that's what users grow to expect. In the iOS app store people spend a lot of time talking about the race to the bottom and how 99 cent apps are detrimental to people trying to make livings as independent developers. Imagine how much more difficult it could be when the race was to free.
jdthomas 14y ago
I was thinking the same thing. The key to a vibrant app ecosystem is making profit for developers. Possibly these apps are making ad money, but yet to be seen.
Encosia 14y ago
On the other hand, Angry Birds Space and Star Wars are more expensive in the Windows Store than on the iOS App Store (though I only checked on my iPhone, not on my iPad), and a ton of the top iOS apps these days are free but make their money through in app purchases. At this point, I just assume that an app that's free on iOS is going to annoy me to death with in app purchase gameplay mechanics and nags.

jeswin 14y ago

I find the colored tiles in the store very difficult to skim through. https://twitter.com/TDUupdaterHD/status/271344469108989952/photo/1 https://twitter.com/TDUupdaterHD/status/271344469108989952/p... In other app stores, the white background lets you navigate quickly, as a simple list with icons.

dmix 14y ago
I know it's a tired cliche to bash Microsoft for poor UI design, but those small multi-color squares plus horizontal scrolling? Wasn't there someone at some level in the company who could point out how unusable that is?
- mkr-hn 14y ago
  I know it's hard to conceive, but you might not be the target market. Microsoft probably has people testing these things. I have no trouble skimming it.
  - Samuel_Michon 14y ago
    "Microsoft probably has people testing these things." It sure does. But what does Microsoft do with those recommendations? The company had a group test the Kin devices, too. The group decided the devices were unusable, and Microsoft decided to launch them as-is anyways. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/11/unreleased-internal-microsoft-videos-show-why-kin-crashed-and-burned/ http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/11/unreleased-internal-m...
    - kenjackson 14y ago
      Actually they fixed the perf, which was the main complaint from those videos.
      - Samuel_Michon 14y ago
        From the article: "These internal Microsoft videos, provided to Wired by a person who worked on the project, show focus groups testing the ill-fated Kin. According to our source, these are pre-production models that changed very little from the shipping product, although “performance improved some prior to shipping.” Watch them, and you can readily see why the project tanked: Kin phones just weren’t usable."

clarky07 14y ago

So many free apps. There must be some secret I'm missing. My free apps that I've tried just haven't made as much as paid. Note: I haven't made any games with consumable IAP. Other app types with upgrades and ad removal.

zmmmmm 14y ago
I would strongly suspect it means many of the apps were funded or sponsored by Microsoft?
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  Microsoft funded 20,000 apps? Really?
  - zmmmmm 14y ago
    It wouldn't surprise me if they funded 5,000 at least. Why wouldn't you if you were in their shoes? I think not doing that was one of Google's greatest mistakes with Android.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]

kenjackson 14y ago

How does this compare to the number of tablet-specific apps for Android?

Derbasti 14y ago
Interesting point. However, what I would really like to know is the number of non-trivial apps. Sadly, that is impossible to count. But every platform has its equivalent to fart apps that add no value to the platform whatsoever.

zmmmmm 14y ago

I think Microsoft needs to be careful about playing a numbers game here - even while what you hear quoted all the time about these app stores is numbers, it's the quality and depth of those apps that matters to the end users. Android has a decent number of tablet optimized apps now, but still not one of the half dozen word processors is what I would call high quality, and nearly all of them are ugly. What will make the platform - and what I believe made iOS such a winner on tablets - is that the apps people experienced delighted them. They were beautiful, extremely high quality, well performing. Things you wanted to show to your friends, and you wanted to pay for. I get a feeling Microsoft is very focused on inflating the store numbers, getting the widest coverage of apps they can on there. But if they are doing that at the expense of quality - so that consumer's first experience of the apps they try do not delight them - that will actually be the downfall of it.

frozenport 14y ago
Everybody wants quality, but I don't see how giving an industry standard benchmark for web-stores put them at a competitive disadvantage. App count is how we compare stores. Lastly, I don't think anybody at MS takes the number as a 1:1 correlation between actual app numbers, and certainly not as a judgement of app quality.
Derbasti 14y ago
Maybe quality is distributed naturally among apps. That would imply that a certain percentage of apps will always veer towards the high quality while a similar percentage will always be rubbish. This would mean that more apps equal more quality. I am inclined to believe in this, if only because natural distributions are so common. (That said, it would be very interesting to compare means and standard deviations between app stores. Would they differ?)
hessenwolf 14y ago
Word processors - which one is good that isn't Microsoft Word, remind me? OO is grotesque and slow. Google docs, for the ease of simultaneous editing is fucking awesome (I just watched 4 people simultaneously update our Saturday thanksgiving meal spreadsheet), but the functionality is pretty basic and clumsy to access.