Microsoft on Tuesday announced that its Windows Store for Windows 8 has surpassed the 100,000 apps milestone.
The big milestone was announced in a Microsoft tweet and arrives just eight months after the application platform was launched.
Microsoft’s milestone is announced only a short time after the company revealed 90,000 apps, which it revealed during the Build developer conference.
In comparison, it took the Windows Phone app store a full 18 months to reach the same 100,000 apps milestone.
While 8 months to reach 100,000 apps is impressive, it is actually a slower pace than Microsoft expected. During the launch of Windows 8, sales and marketing vice president Keith Lazio suggested that the Windows App Store could reach 100,000 apps by February 2013.
By the end of December 2012, the Windows store had just 35,000 apps.
Still, in comparison to other platforms, the meteoric rise of the Windows Store is impressive. It took the Google Play store 18 months to reach 100,000 apps and Apple’s App Store took 14 months to reach the same goal for iPad-native applications.
While the Windows 8 App Store reached 100,000 apps more quickly than its competition, the company did have the advantage of pitching a type of app eco-system that has already become fully accepted by most customers.
Microsoft officials are planning to launch 175,000 apps in the Windows Store by January 31, 2014.
With a growing number of Windows 8 apps and more major companies working on new software for the platform, we can’t wait to see what the Windows store will look like when it reaches 175,000 apps in January 2014.
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