14 DAY TRIAL // Everyone knows that the lack of apps on Windows Phone is what keeps many users away from Microsoft's smartphone platform, but Redmond itself is trying to address this issue by making the operating system more appealing to developers and by encouraging them to create apps that would work on both phones and tablets.
With Windows 10, universal apps will be the core of everything, but in the meantime, statistics show that Microsoft's efforts are more or less paying off.
The Microsoft by the Numbers website reveals that Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 currently have a total of 585,000 apps in their stores and “hundreds more are added every day.”
MetroStoreScanner, a third-party service that tracks the number of apps in the Windows Store (on the PC), says that there are approximately 200,000 apps available on the desktop, which leaves us with no more, no less than 385,000 apps on Windows Phone.
Is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? Nobody can tell for sure, but there's no doubt that it's not all about quantity, but more about quality. It's a well-known fact that Microsoft had a really hard time trying to keep its store clean and remove spam and scam apps (and some of them are still there), but the biggest issue is that software developed by top companies is still missing.
Where's the official Snapchat client?
Microsoft hopes to convince more developers to embrace Windows, including Google, with the release of Windows 10, but in the meantime, the issue remains.
Snapchat is pretty much the best example here, as an official client that would allow Windows Phone users to access the service is not available in the store. Third-party Snapchat clients are also banned, so those who'd want to use the messaging solution on their Windows phones have basically no solution.
Microsoft is well aware of this and although it says absolutely nothing about the Snapchat saga, it's very likely that the company is working behind closed doors, probably directly with Snapchat, to bring an official client on Windows Phone. And Windows 10 is the right moment to do this, but this means that users would still have to wait a little bit longer.
Windows 10 is expected to debut in the fall of 2015, but RTM is scheduled to be reached in June, according to sources. All Windows Phone 8.1 devices will be upgradeable to Windows 10 free of charge.