Microsoft releases developer numbers after a year of Phone 7

Microsoft has released new data on developer and application adoption for the Phone 7 platform a year after it was first introduced.

Writing on the Windows Phone Developer Blog, Brandon Watson, director at Windows phones claims there have been 1.5 million downloads of Windows Phone Developer Tools in the last year.

More than 11,500 applications have been developed for the platform, about 4,000 of which are free. Microsoft estimates there are 36,000 developers for Phone 7 and the company says it is pulling in 1,200 new ones a week. However, only 40 per cent of those counted as developers by Microsoft have actually produced applications.

"The statistic that gets me the most excited and speaks the most to the work my team has yet to do is the percentage of registered developers who have published their apps," Watson wrote.

"Forty per cent of the fully registered developer population has published an app or game, yet 60 per cent have not yet published. That's incredibly exciting when you consider the amount of creativity which is still forthcoming."

The average Phone 7 user is downloading 12 applications each month, although handsets currently have limited availability.

"Microsoft is hitting the app milestones at a good clip, moving even faster than Android did in its day, although it is easier to bring apps to a second or third mobile platform than the first time around," Al Hilwa, program director for applications development software at IDC told V3.co.uk.

"This is not a surprise because platform building is a Microsoft core competency. What it has to work harder on is building up the other side of the equation, namely the device portfolio diversity, quality and sheer numbers. Building out a platform in the early stages requires a virtuous cycle of investments to increase both apps and sockets to run them continuously."

He pointed out that Android hit the 10,000 mark within 11 months after the first handset shipped in October 2008, whereas Windows Phone hit this milestone faster.