Windows Store: how it has evolved since its launch

When Microsoft introduced Windows 8 at Build 2011, it spoke highly of its app store. It was not available in Developer Preview, and would take a few months to be available.

Throughout the Windows 8 beta period, Microsoft kept telling us how it was going to work. In December we found out what it was going to look like, and later they revealed the rest of the details: prices, in-app purchases and application tests. But how has it evolved since its launch?

From 0 to almost 100,000 applications in 11 months

Gathering numbers from Win App Update and MetroStore Scanner we have created a graph with the evolution of the Windows Store throughout its 11 months of life. Today, the store has 89,333 apps, which would leave us with almost 100,000 (estimated number) by the end of June.

All this in less than a year since access was opened to some developers. In September, Microsoft opened the Store to any developer, and in October Windows 8 was released to the public. After the first wave of new apps, the store has been growing at an ever-increasing rate. In the 8 months it has been open, the average has been 11,000 new applications per month.

Windows Store is breaking records in that regard, far surpassing the marks of other app stores. The fastest growing iOS App Store in its first year only reached 65,000 apps.

There is quantity, but… quality?

For how depressing the 'tops' of the application stores tend to be, the one for Windows is not bad at all.

Yes, it's great to have a lot of apps, but what really matters is that there are good apps. And the Windows Store is still a bit off, but not as much as it might seem.

Photoshop Express, Skype, Dropbox, Adobe Reader, Evernote, Wordpress, Netflix, Hulu, Twitter, RSS readers... These are essential applications for a tablet that are in Windows 8. By having it, it's up to you Office available on tablets ( although a Metro version wouldn't be bad at all).

Still, some standout apps are missing, such as Flipboard, Facebook, Spotify, powerful Twitter clients or alternative browsers. And, of course, there are plenty of junk apps, but this is an increasingly common problem for all app stores.

Conclusions and future of Windows Store

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Taking into account that Windows RT, the system where the Windows Store makes the most sense, is not exactly having massive adoption, the Windows Store is in a very good position. Many applications and many of the essential ones>"

There aren't many changes that the shop itself needs, other than the redesign that was leaked a few hours ago. Rather, Microsoft needs to push Metro/Modern UI apps to be more useful for all users and not relegated to touch-only interfaces.

It would also be very interesting to further enhance Windows RT with smaller and cheaper tablets, where Windows 8 Pro and traditional applications do not make sense, and where RT can find its perfect place.

So far, Microsoft has already announced some of these changes and the rest will be fully revealed at Build 2013, an event that we will follow next week on Xataka Windows directly from San Francisco.