14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s brand new Windows Store is growing bigger as the time goes by, so it now provides access to more than 20,000 apps worldwide.
According to WinAppUpdate, there are 20,610 apps available in the Windows Store and no less than 17,958 of them are being offered with a freeware license.
“20,610 apps worldwide in the Windows Store (broke 20,000 on Tuesday, I believe). 17,958 of those are free (87%),” WinAppUpdate reported via its Twitter account.
Although the Windows Store is clearly growing at a pretty slow pace, Microsoft expects the new feature to offer around 100,000 apps by February. Keith Lorizio, VP, U.S. Sales & Marketing, said in an interview in October that Windows 8’s Store would grow so much after the official launch of the new operating system that it would eventually reach the 100,000 unit milestone by February.
Analysts, on the other hand, aren’t quite optimistic and previously hinted that 5,000 apps available in the Store before Windows 8 becomes generally available should ensure a decent growth. Windows 8 was launched with approximately 6,000 apps in the Store.
The Windows Store is available on all Windows 8 platforms, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and mobile phones.
While it’s clearly a helpful addition to the new operating system, the Windows Store still lacks plenty of applications and world-renowned developers are yet to submit their very own software to the Store.
Options are pretty limited right now in almost all software categories in the Store. If you wish to deploy another browser, for instance, and use it in the Modern interface, the Windows Store doesn’t offer too many choices, except for a couple of less-known apps that could hardly replace the built-in IE10.
The good thing though is that software companies have already announced plans to develop dedicated Windows 8 apps, including Firefox and Twitter.