The app offerings for Windows Phones have slowly been growing since the launch of Windows Phone 8 last October. Today, the underdog mobile platform finally gets Instagram and Waze, two huge titles on iOS and Android. Personal finance app Mint and Xbox Video will be coming soon too.
These titles join big names like Facebook, Pandora, YouTube, Skype, as well as Vine, which launched on Windows Phone last week.
Todd Brix, GM of the Windows App Store, acknowledges that Windows Phone still doesn't have 100 percent of the apps you'd find on other platforms, but by this holiday season, it should feature 80 to 90 percent of the top 50 most popular apps on competing mobile platforms. That's about the same as you'd find Android has of iOS' top titles, and vice versa.
Brix says that users are getting more app hungry, with the Windows App Store seeing 10 million downloads a day on the phone store. Developers are shipping 500 new apps each day as well. Windows Phone senior marketing manager Casey McGee thinks Microsoft's mobile platform is starting to look more attractive to developers because it has a strong footing in international and emerging markets, audiences Microsoft may not be able to reach on other platforms.
