A Look At Windows Phone 7 Marketplace's Catalog, App Prices (Distimo Report)
App store analytics provider Distimo took its monthly look at the world of mobile application stores, and this time zoomed in on the differences between Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and Windows Marketplace for Mobile (6.x).
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft relaunched its mobile app storefront with Windows Phone 7 this fall after betting the platform on developer appeal — back in August, Ars Technica argued that developers, developers, developers was the OS's secret sauce. With the new Marketplace live, the open question is whether that bet produced a catalog and price structure distinct from the aging Windows Marketplace for Mobile 6.x it replaces.
Distimo's monthly report is one of the first independent reads on that question, benchmarking the WP7 Marketplace's catalog size and app pricing directly against Microsoft's own legacy 6.x store — effectively grading the launch against Microsoft's past rather than against rival platforms.
First-order effects
- Developers deciding whether to port existing Windows Mobile 6.x titles now have a published baseline for how catalog size and pricing differ between the two Microsoft stores.
- Microsoft gets an independent, recurring benchmark of its new storefront at launch — useful ammunition if the numbers flatter it, a public scorecard if they don't.
Second-order effects
- If the report shows the two Microsoft storefronts diverging on price or catalog depth, developers face a consolidation decision: maintaining listings on both stores splits effort, pushing the 6.x ecosystem toward the newer Marketplace.
- Monthly analytics from Distimo give carriers and OEM partners shipping WP7 handsets this holiday season a third-party way to answer the 'is there an app for that' question before committing shelf space.
Third-order effects
- Third-party app-store analytics firms like Distimo are becoming the de facto referees of platform viability, with catalog size and price distribution serving as the launch metrics every new mobile OS is judged on.
- For Microsoft, the pattern points toward storefront succession becoming a structural feature of its mobile strategy — each platform generation resetting the developer relationship rather than inheriting the old store's inventory.
The trend: Independent app-store analytics reports are turning catalog size and app pricing into the standard first-90-days scoreboard for any new mobile platform.