Windows 8 Store Apps Count Skyrockets to 3,600

Microsoft hopes the Windows Store will attract plenty of users to its new operating system, but experts warned that such a feature needs at least 5,000 apps at launch in order to succeed.

Surprisingly, the Windows Store recorded an impressive growth in the past few days and, according to figures released by WinAppUpdate.com, it has already passed the 3,000 app mark.

This means that Windows Store will easily surpass the 5,000 app threshold at launch if the same growth rate is maintained.

Today, there are 3,610 Windows Store apps, as no less than 118 apps are submitted every day. A total of 88 percent of the apps are shipped with a freeware license, according to the aforementioned source.

“Games” is by far the most popular category in Windows Store, holding 18 percent of the apps, while “Entertainment” comes second with 13 percent.

“Tools” snatched the third spot with 10 percent, followed by “Education,” “News” & “Weather,” each with 9 points.

Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, said earlier this week that Microsoft’s Windows 8 needs at least 5,000 apps at launch in order to succeed, as all early adopters will load the Windows Store looking for apps.

“Microsoft has put a big burden on Windows 8 and Windows RT. They have to have a large number of high-quality apps... I've said 5,000 is a reasonable number... to be successful at launch. They don't need 100,000, but they need a decent number,” Moorhead said.

Moorhead warned that such a strategy may fail on the long-term, but Microsoft is clearly struggling to avoid such a fiasco by continuously calling for developers to create and submit their apps to the Windows Store.