Even with hundreds of new features built into an upcoming update of Windows Phone 7 and new device partners, Microsoft seems to understand that it’s all about the apps. After the software giant showed off its Mango update this week, an executive said the company will encourage more developers to create applications for the Windows Phone Marketplace by allowing higher prices.
“I’d rather developers sell fewer than a million downloads and get to a million dollars,” Brandon Watson, director of an apps developer program for Microsoft, told Bloomberg News during an interview in Helsinki. “If we can support a higher price point, that’s good for developers.”
How Do They Compare?
A report last year by the Dutch research company Ditsimo, which studies the app market, found that, based on October data, the average cost of Windows Mobile apps was more than $ 5, with the top 100 most popular apps costing more than $ 6. The average cost of all paid apps for Phone 7, the successor to Windows Mobile, was about $ 2.50 as of November, the report said, while the average cost of the top 100 most popular apps was more than $ 6. The average app for Apple’s iPhone cost just more than $ 2, with the top 100 costing about four bucks.
For Android, the average cost was just under $ 5 for all paid apps and about $ 3.25 for the most popular 100. The Windows Phone Marketplace also had the lowest share of free apps at 22 percent, compared to 57 percent for Android, Ditsimo said.
Watson also told Bloomberg that Nokia will release its first Windows Phone 7 devices in the fourth quarter. He added that the Finnish hardware giant and Microsoft are encouraging developers who make programs for Nokia’s Symbian operating system to create Windows apps as well.
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