WP7 Marketplace More Successful than Older WM App Portal

Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 operating system, as well as the services that come along with it, are already enjoying higher success than what last year's Windows Mobile 6.5 platform flavor was capable to offer.

Among these services, the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, one of the most important destinations for users, is already shaping up much better when compared to the older Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

The portal was launched about a month ago with under 1,000 applications on board, and it is already rocking around 3,000 software solutions, an impressive growth when compared to the older software portal.

According to a recent report from Distimo, on November 22nd, Windows Phone 7 Marketplace had a number of 2,674 applications available for its users, although launched on October 21st.

The old Windows Marketplace for Mobile managed to gather only 1,350 applications to date, although it was released more than a year ago, when Windows Mobile 6.5 landed on shelves the report states.

It appears that Microsoft might have finally found the winning formula for its mobile platform and for attracting developers to its side.

Indeed, Microsoft promised a better experience for both users and developers with the new OS, and the early signs indicate that it managed to offer the expected change.

As for the content available in the app portal, it reportedly sports price tags in line with what other app stores offer.

“The prices of the most popular applications in Windows Phone 7 Marketplace are even more in line with the other stores: 57% of the 100 most popular applications are priced below $2.00,” the report reads.

“For the other stores, this is between 51% and 67%, except for Windows Marketplace for Mobile where only 37% of the 100 most popular applications is priced below $2.00.”

The ten most popular apps in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace are games, with price tags ranging from $2.99 - $6.99. However, the top ten free apps in the store includes only two games.

Microsoft is said to have the largest number of the ten most popular apps in the Marketplace, namely six of them, more than what Apple App Store for iPad and BlackBerry App World have, namely four apps published by Apple and RIM, respectively.

All in all, the new Windows Phone 7 and the Marketplace accompanying it seem to be more user friendly and to offer access to more appealing applications that users can take full advantage of, something that would certainly help the platform take off.