Microsoft Windows Phone 7 marketplace tops 25,000 apps

SOFTWARE HOUSE Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 (WP7) marketplace has broken the 25,000 mark of apps available for its mobile operating system.

When the list was generated earlier today the marketplace had 25,459 applications available to download, and Microsoft said 2,003 of these have been added in the last two weeks.

The majority of these apps are free at 51 per cent, whilst 30 per cent are paid apps and the remaining 19 per cent are paid apps with a free trial period.

The number of approved developers for the WP7 operating system has also gone up and currently stands at 7,170.

Much like at other apps stores, most of the apps in the WP7 marketplace are games, at 17 per cent. Game apps are followed by books and entertainment apps with 13 and 11 per cent shares, respectively.

In comparison to rivals the figure of over 25,000 doesn't look all that great. Google's Android Market currently has over 300,000 apps and back in May the Apple App Store hit 500,000 approved apps.

One of the most notable apps added to the WP7 marketplace recently was Angry Birds. WP7 users had to wait quite a long time for the already legendary game to tip up, only to be faced with a £2.49 fee.

Promotional hype for the WP7 operating system continues, with International Data Corporation (IDC) predicting that WP7 will outgrow Apple's IOS and Google's Android in the next few years.

That growth apparently hasn't begun to materialise so far, however. But Nokia hopes to make that dream come true with its upcoming WP7 devices. µ