Windows Phone 7 Drawing Developer Interest

Microsoft has reported that there are 1,200 new developers joining the AppHub community each week, showing that there is considerable interest in building apps for Windows Phone 7. Even though the platform has only been available to consumers for four months or so, the developer tools have been available for over a year. And celebrating that first year of Windows Phone development, Microsoft's Brandon Watson has come out with a list of statistics that help to show the progress of Windows Phone 7 AppHub and the developer community.

All 1,200 new developers may not be working on Windows Phone, though, since AppHub also includes Xbox Live games developers. But 40% of registered developers have published an application in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Other Numbers

There are 36,000 paid members of the AppHub community, and the developer tools for Windows Phone have been downloaded 1.5 million times.

There are 11,500 apps available for download for Windows Phone, and Watson hastens to point out that Microsoft has been careful what counts as an "app", excluding things like wallpaper and not allowing competitors apps to run on the platform "to increase "tonnage"". According to Watson, "we believe we have the standards and processes in place to continue ensuring that customers have the ability to quickly and easily locate and acquire quality apps and games that extend the value of their phone."

Also, 7,500 of WP7 apps are for pay, and 1,100 are funded by ads. While the Android Market started with only 50 apps and grew to 10,000 in one year, the overwhelming majority of those apps were free, and there was much less oversight on what was allowed. Apple's App Store launched with 800 apps in 2008 and grew to 50,000 in one year.

Looks like developer interest in WP7 is strong, and the app marketplace is growing at a healthy rate. As more handsets become available, it will be interesting to see how things play out.

[via The Windows Phone Developer Blog]