Last year, Microsoft's Joe Belfiore made the bold proclamation that the "app gap" between Windows Phone and other platforms would be closed in 2014. We're only one and a half months from the end of the year, and although the app gap still exists, Microsoft has announced new numbers that show promise. The Windows and Windows Phone Stores now combine for well over 500,000 apps.
Microsoft says that as of September 30th, the Windows Phone Store contains about 340,000 apps, while the Windows Store has around 187,000 apps. Of course, Microsoft has plans to merge the two stores into one with the release of Windows 10 next year, so the total of 527,000 apps is subject to change. That's not too bad a number for Windows Phone, which had 300,000 apps just a couple months before; so, it seems like the WP Store is gaining a bit of steam. The total number will fluctuate both because of more apps coming, but also because of apps from the two stores will also merge with the push for universal Windows apps.
Given that Android and iOS stopped bothering to count total apps after they each surpassed one million, Windows is still lagging well behind in terms of pure numbers. But, as we looked through before, the app gap isn't as wide as the numbers would suggest. Windows does have viable options for most needs, and only really lags behind other mobile platforms in terms of things like banking apps and games.
