Windows Phone Marketplace now boasts more apps than BlackBerry App World, reckons Distimo

Projections suggest Windows Phone will be fighting it out at the bottom of the top of the smartphone table in the years ahead, but the first hurdle it has to overcome is the platform indices suggest is currently in third spot: BlackBerry.

Device number wise, Windows Phone is some way off challenging RIM's platform, but numbers sourced from Distimo suggest Microsoft's OS already boasts more apps.

App happy

"Last weekend, Windows Phone Marketplace surpassed the 60,000 active applications milestone worldwide," said Distimo on the firm's blog.

"Main contributor to this fact is the strong growth of new applications in January, where around 3,000 new applications were added per week."

Such growth is not unexpected: even at the start of Windows Phone's life, when handset sales were slow to get off the ground, the marketplace quickly became one of the fastest growing on the market.

End of round 1

Indeed, it's taken Windows Phone Marketplace just under 16 months to hit 60,000 apps - an average of 3,750 new apps a month.

In contrast, BlackBerry App World launched 18 months previous, yet now finds itself slipping behind the newest kid on the block.

Distimo claims the race between the two platforms, however, is not over.

"Both stores have different strategies in this battle," the firm concludes.

"On the one hand, Microsoft quickly expands Windows Phone Marketplace to more countries ;in order to gain market-power. On the other hand, RIM tries to attract Android developers by offering PlayBooks for those who submit Android applications for PlayBook OS 2.0 before February 13.

"The effects of this action is already noticed in the data, because BlackBerry added more new application to App World than Windows Phone Marketplace did last week."

[source: Distimo]