Microsoft Exec: 100,000 Windows Store Apps by January
You'd better get to work. Microsoft is counting on you, dear developer, to write Windows 8 apps at a furious pace.
At least, that seems to be Microsoft's stance, based on an interview with Keith Lorizio, Microsoft's vice president of U.S. sales and marketing, that appeared on Beet.tv. In the interview, currently making the rounds of cyberspace, Lorizio says Microsoft's goal is to have "100,000-plus" apps in the Windows Store within 90 days of Windows 8's release, which would put it at Jan. 26.
That's quite a high bar to hit, considering that there are currently fewer than 4,000 apps in the store. That's according to data from a new site, WinAppUpdate.com, started last month by Wes Miller, a Research Vice-President at Directions on Microsoft. Miller also spent time in the Windows division at Microsoft.
Lorizio's counting on huge Windows 8 adoption for the carrot -- if Microsoft builds it, they will come. "It's critical for us to get a critical mass of apps", he says.
The available marketplace for Windows 8, says Lorizio, is one billion-plus consumers. "In order for us to reach our goals, which is a conservative estimate of 400 million units in marketplace by July 1, we know we have to have a very, very healthy ecosystem of apps," Lorizio says.
No kidding. Microsoft continues to face a chicken-and-egg situation: Applications draw customers to a platform, but developers are drawn to platforms with the most customers. But if Microsoft can reach that "conservative" goal of 400 million copies of Windows 8, developers will be falling all over themselves to create apps for it.
Still, 100,000-plus apps would be fairly amazing, considering that the Apple Store and Google Play, both mature marketplaces for products that have been out for years, are at about 700,000 and 675,000 apps each, respectively. That doesn't mean Microsoft can't do it -- just that it will take a phenomenal effort on both Microsoft's part and its legion of developers.
Posted by Keith Ward on 10/10/2012