Windows Phone Marketplace Is Riding High On Free Content
Last week, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) revealed on the anniversary of the Windows Phone Marketplace that the app storefront now has some 40,000 apps in its catalog. Some numbers out today reveal that there are 1,650 free …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Marketplace's first year is a steep climb: Microsoft went from 10,000 apps in March 2011 to 30,000 by late August, when it opened the storefront to submissions built on the Mango update — and today's anniversary figure of 40,000 shows that pipeline filling within weeks rather than quarters.
The detail worth watching is composition, not just count: 1,650 free apps give Microsoft an answer to the 'thin catalog' objection at carrier counters, where a buyer comparing against established stores weighs what they can get without paying.
First-order effects
- Microsoft now has a one-year-old store with 40,000 apps, letting it pitch Windows Phone handsets this holiday season without the catalog-size caveat that dogged the October 2010 launch.
- Developers who submitted Mango builds since August are seeing a storefront whose fill rate accelerated after the submission gates opened, shortening their wait-to-market versus the spring cadence.
Second-order effects
- For developers allocating porting effort across platforms, a third ecosystem compounding from 10,000 to 40,000 apps in eight months lowers the perceived risk of investing in Windows Phone alongside iOS and Android builds.
- Free-content depth becomes Microsoft's counterargument in carrier and OEM negotiations, where shelf space for Windows Phone devices has depended on closing the app-gap complaint against incumbents.
Third-order effects
- If the post-Mango fill rate holds, raw catalog size stops being the differentiator among mobile platforms and competition shifts to monetization mix — how much of a store is free, ad-supported, or paid.
- That pushes every storefront toward free-first economics, where the paid-app share shrinks and developer revenue depends on volume and in-app conversion rather than upfront purchase price.
The trend: Mobile app stores are scaling catalogs as fast as submission pipelines allow, with free content serving as the customer-acquisition lever for platforms challenging entrenched leaders.