Apple's 500,000 apps to Microsoft's 18,000

[HawkMan]

Their point is that the WP7 marketplace is the fastest growing marketplace out of them all, and WILL catch up to the iTunes app store, which now covers not only iPhone appsl but also iPad and OSX apps and some other stuff. and unlike WP7 it's full of Wallpaper apps, now I don't know, but to me, I've never considered a wallpaper an app, neither have I considered ring tones apps.

Now lets remove all the dupes and remove all the stuff that isn't really apps, and compare only iPhone to WP7 apps, and then see the real numbers,

[nohone]

And don't forget, while the iStore iClaims iTo iHave 500,000 apps, a number of those are duplicates. For example, there is Angry Birds and Angry Birds lite, when Angry birds hits WP7 there will be only one copy on the store serving both the full and trial edition. There are 1000s of apps on the iStore iWith iTwo iEditions. No, not enough to make the number equal, but there is a significant number.

[jakem1]

There are good and bad apps available on both platforms . However, IMO WP apps are generally much more intuitive, consistent and easier to navigate because of the superior controls that Microsoft offer. WP7's panorama and pivot controls work much better than all the buttons and pop-up menus that iOS developers have to work with and make exploring and using apps simpler and more efficient. By comparison iOS apps seem a little more outdated - they may contain more eye-candy but that's at the expense of usability.

The point about trial apps nohone raises above is an excellent example of how a little thought leads to a far simpler, more powerful UX.

[Xypro]

Too much, god any user must be soo over whelmed at the number, but I guess the saying is true for apple, "There is an app for everything ". Literally , But microsoft does have a good but really small selection of apps.

[bobbba]

Quality not quantity. I've got an iPhone and love the apps for it however there's a lot of crap there so I don't think this is damning at all for MS.