By Nicole Kobie
Posted on 23 Nov 2012 at 15:23
There's now more than 20,000 Windows 8 apps available, according to an independent analysis.
Windows App Update has been methodically keeping track of apps in the Windows Store, reporting it's now topped 20,610 globally - while Apple and Google's app stores both have several hundred thousand apps each.
Of course, not all apps are available in all markets. Of those, 12,675 are available in the US version of the store, and 11,000 in the UK. 87% of the apps in the Windows Store are free.
Windows 8 and the Surface RT tablet have received mixed reviews, and one sticking point has been availability of apps - our own take on the tablet noted "there's no doubt that the Windows Store falls a long way short of its iOS and Android rivals in terms of both quantity and quality of applications".
Microsoft has yet to confirm the numbers. A Microsoft exec last month said that the company was targeting 100,000 apps by February - leaving a lot of catching up to do over the next few months.
Microsoft insists that the total number of apps isn't important. Antoine LeBlond, corporate vice president of Windows Web services, told PC Pro ahead of the launch in October: "The one thing you won't hear us spending much time or any time about is an absolute count of apps".
He said it didn't make much sense as many apps were merely copies of others - a developer might make a fan app for Justin Bieber and Beyonce, for example. Still, he did point out that Windows 8 had the largest app store at launch.
According to Windows App Update, there were 9,029 apps in the store on the 26 October, meaning the number has more than doubled since the launch of Windows 8.
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