Andre Yoskowitz
27 Dec 2011 23:50
The fast-growing Windows Phone Marketplace has surpassed 50,000 apps, just a month after hitting 40,000.
All About Windows Phone reported the number, which is different than Microsoft's official "more than 35,000" stance. The discrepancy is due to the fact that Microsoft does not include "lite" versions of paid apps and wallpaper apps in its tally.
The platform took just 14 months to reach the plateau, faster than Android which took 19 months and BlackBerry which took 27 months. Apple is not a fair comparison as there were already 4 million iOS devices active before the store opened.
In the past few weeks, the WPM is growing at a rate of 256 apps per day.
There is no clear reason as to the surge in developer interest but it can likely be attributed to the more widespread availability of WP7 devices and the anticipation of the first Nokia phones hitting the U.S. in the next two months.