In an official blog post, Microsoft is highlighting the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store trends, as of May 2014. Unfortunately, Microsoft did not provide an updated app count for both stores. Fortunately, Microsoft is offering a few tidbits that gives consumers and developers an idea of how well both stores are doing.
Microsoft has begun to see apps submitted to both stores that take advantage of the new universal apps paradigm, built using Visual Studio. Microsoft is also seeing an increase in developers linking their Windows and Windows Phone apps in both stores for better awareness.
The company also added that the Games category was the most-downloaded category in the Windows Phone Store. “Games continued to be the most popular category for all devices, followed by other categories with significant download share including Entertainment, Social, Music & Videos, and Tools. Windows downloads are highly skewed towards games more so than Windows Phone,” Microsoft explained. On the other hand, Social was the most-downloaded category in the Windows Store.
“The market with the highest number of downloads is United States, though the distribution shows there are many markets that generate significant downloads, including China, India, France, United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, and Russia. That doesn’t mean, however, that you shouldn’t consider other markets. Your specific app may have characteristics that make it perform differently in these markets,” Microsoft added.
Microsoft is also recommending Windows app developers to try out the new $0.99 and $1.29 USD price tiers, for better monetization. If you are an app developer, head over to the VIA link below for specific trend details. It is wise to study the store trends in order to better monetize or better expose your app to potential users.
Further reading: Microsoft, Windows Phone, Windows Store
