The Windows Phone Marketplace is growing much faster than Android did when it started out, an IDC analyst has said.
According to eWeek, Al Hilwa, an analyst from IDC, said the marketplace for Windows Phone 7 has taken two months to reach 4,000 apps, while Android took five months to reach that target in its beginnings.
“The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace reaching 4,000 apps two months after launch has to be one of the most rapid ramp-ups in recent times, reaching this milestone faster than Android, which took from October 2008 to March 2009 to reach about the same level,” said Hilwa.
Hilwa also has high expectations for app development for the platform for 2011, due to the efforts it has made in 2010.
“We can say that for a company that just a few months ago was an also-ran in mobile, having 10 smartphones released in 30 countries is not a trivial achievement,” Hilwa said.
“I would not be surprised if Microsoft had the third-largest app portfolio in the industry by the middle of next year.”
Microsoft launched its new mobile operating system late this year, to compete with other mobile platforms, such as Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.
While Microsoft has been reluctant to release early sales figures, reports suggest that they were quite low.
However, it could still be early days, and with this prediction, will 2011 be the year for Windows Phone 7?
