App Gap Becoming a Myth by the Hour

[Coreldan]

It's good to be finnish in this regard. Here Windows Phone has a very signifigant market share which leads to fe. local banking apps typically making their way on WP as well. But regardless the app gap is definitely still there for a lot of things I care about. I wish I had fe. mobile Armory for WoW or well.. any companion apps for new games coming out (for most games it's a non issue and just a quick novelty thing, but some have good stuff).

Typically though my approach is as little apps as possible. I think it's a pretty terrible model that "there's an app for that". I don't want to download a bazillion apps just to do one thing on each. That's largely why I got a WP to begin with, the integrated FB chat eliminating my need to have a an FB chat. It's definitely not the same to use the integrated SMS view as having to open a seperate 3rd party app every time I chat on WP. Makes me sad they removed it for WP8.1 though. Anyways, I typically use the browser based sites as far as possible, but there are a few things I like to have apps for, like for my bank and a few other things, but generally speaking I rather take good integration over an app and to this day, after over 1? years on my Lumia 920, I don't really have much apps installed and I'm happy and don't consider myself lacking much except the things I mentioned above. This is why the app gap never quite bothered me. Now if I could only have flash (as terrible as it is) in the browser and I could probably eliminate most of the remaining apps

 

[giulianoreali]

I have both Android and WP and I like both for different reasons. I couldn't ditch Android completely and live only with WP though. Everytime I try, I'm soon reminded that I can't do certain things in an app which I can easily do in its Android counterpart. It's usually a small thing, but then the small things start piling on top of each other until it makes for an overall frustrating user experience. I'll give you an example. Yesterday a friend asked me to like her page on Facebook, which I did with no problems on WP. But then I decided to explore her page a little more, and found that I couldn't even enlarge the page photo. I tried it on Android and of course I was able to see the photo full screen. Is it a big deal? Not really, but it's an annoying little thing among countless other little things which happen all the time. Even the WP Central app works better on Android than on WP. How ridiculous is that? I was going to comment on this thread from my 925, but since I don't have a proper account, I need the feature to login through Google/Facebook/etc. Was it there on my 925? If it was, it was pretty well hidden. So I took my Sony T2, tried the same thing, and there it was, the option to login using Google/Facebook/etc. So here I am posting this from an Android phone because I couldn't do it from my Windows Phone. Ironic?

As I said, I really like my 925, but I also use an Android when WP leaves me stuck. However, I couldn't recommend WP to people who have only one phone and need to rely on it solely (which is 95% of the people), because at some point they'll be stuck against a wall while doing something important with no other device to fall back on. That shortcoming needs to be addressed as urgently as the app gap, IMO.

Posted via Windows Phone Central App

 

[steve_w_7]

I will be posting new apps every day as soon I learn from them.
Nokia Pocket Magnifier 2014
Climatology 7/15/2014
Video Tuner [MS] 7/15/2014
Adidas miCoach. 7/20/14
Video Calling Via Tango 7/16/2014

There is definitely still an App Gap. To illustrate, rather than list new apps as they come to WP, make a list of new apps that come to the iPhone App Store and tell us if they are also available on Windows Phone. I think it will be enlightening.

 

[Jorge Holguin]

There is definitely still an App Gap. To illustrate, rather than list new apps as they come to WP, make a list of new apps that come to the iPhone App Store and tell us if they are also available on Windows Phone. I think it will be enlightening.

Why on hell would I do that? We already know iOS and Android have them. If I would have been interesting in any of those OS' I wouldn't be here. Just because it is new does not mean it will be successful and/or popular; small example Flappy Bird: it was really first on iOS never became popular until it went to the roof on Android. I just want developer get interested in WP
Check this out. Windows Phone a target of more than 1/4 of app developers, despite market share | Windows Phone Central

 

[steve_w_7]

Why on hell would I do that? We already know iOS and Android have them. If I would have been interesting in any of those OS' I wouldn't be here. Just because it is new does not mean it will be successful and/or popular; small example Flappy Bird: it was really first on iOS never became popular until it went to the roof on Android. I just want developer get interested in WP
Check this out. Windows Phone a target of more than 1/4 of app developers, despite market share | Windows Phone Central

That is, by definition, the "app gap". Apps that are available on other platforms but not available on WP.

 

[kwickone]

App gap for "mainstream" apps is shrinking for sure. But for localized apps (my bank, my local news, my specialty interests) it is still WAY behind. Also, for those of us with friends using other platforms, which equals all of us, having a clone, or comparable, app is not good enough. Example: if all my friends play Clash of Clans, having Royal Revolt does not help me.

But more importantly for me is the app parity. We may have the app on WP, but the app is lacking key features that are available on other platforms. Examples include: lack of toast notifications, or the app will shell out to a mobile web page instead of presenting content in the app itself.

 

[undisputed n00b]

The app problem now is mainly due to WP not getting any of the popular apps/games that iOS and Android have when they are popular. WP gets them once they are no longer popular/ the fad is over.

 

[stephen_az]

Yes they all are full feature party apps. I clear stated which ones are not in my note. I understand the gap can vary by person to person but in general the gap is closing really fast. We don't even have all U.S.A banks but they are coming; I never use myfinesspal but it is there are other good health apps available.

Where is the proof that US bank apps are coming? Existing ones are few and far between and I have neither seen nor heard anything to suggest a change. There aren't even apps for all of the largest banks let alone smaller and/or regional ones. The same is true for lots of business oriented apps. Sorry, I am not looking at any other platforms and get by with what exists but the app gap is not shrinking.

 

[Jorge Holguin]

Thanks I will check it out. My daughter spend lot her time on the phone if the apps is what I looking for; it'll on her daily use.

 

[TechFreak1]

Given the advent of android tablets and ipads, most colleges or schools also release for these and only these platforms. Along side banks and other corporate entities, when you look from that perspective there is unfortunately a gap. Which is a catch 22 situation, you can't have apps without market share and without apps there is no increase in market share, the universal apps will address this issue however it is going to be a slow road. The app store for android and ios didn't get to the levels where they are over night.

However from a consumer's point of view who just uses, facebook, twitter, youtube, some calendar, sms and phone calls there is not any app gap. But it is the lack of games which their friends are playing (i.e candy crush), which is conveniently bundly into the 'lack of apps' argument.

The crux of the issue is that you need to have a windows 8 machine, with slat enabled to even start developing WP 8.x apps. They should really have given developers tools to be able to develop WP8 apps on windows xp and windows 7 that would have helped a lot, since a tremendous amount of corporations, small to medium businesses and even government departments are still running xp.

For me personally, If I really wanted to play clash of clans I can install bluestacks on my laptop and play it. Windows phone suits my needs as I have all the apps that I need and use on a daily basis.

 

[Jorge Holguin]

That is, by definition, the "app gap". Apps that are available on other platforms but not available on WP.

Yes you have a good point. We are also getting new apps as well. One thing that bugs me are the clones... I knw we have some on wp store but on iOS & Android is insane.

 

[Jorge Holguin]

Where is the proof that US bank apps are coming? Existing ones are few and far between and I have neither seen nor heard anything to suggest a change. There aren't even apps for all of the largest banks let alone smaller and/or regional ones. The same is true for lots of business oriented apps. Sorry, I am not looking at any other platforms and get by with what exists but the app gap is not shrinking.

how many big banks does the US has? credit union is another matter but big banks are coming.

 

[Keith Wallace]

The only app I wanted that came was MLB.TV. I'm still waiting for Yahoo! fantasy apps worth a darn, and the #1 app I wanted when I got my Windows Phone (Trillian) continues to be missing, with IM+ being a bare-minimum alternative. I'm also looking for an excuse to play games on my phone, and I just can't do it anymore. They're all so boring, and now the Xbox LIVE integration has died off, for the most part.

 

[DavidinCT]

I will refine my last statement. If you new to the Smartphone market, Windows Phone will have everything you need or could want for about 90% of the stuff you would use. Odd ball stuff, the web browser if your on 4G is good and fast enough to not always need an app (3G sucks in my area and find IE almost unusable when most of my area is under LTE)

If you are coming from Android or iOS, there is a HUGE App gap.

Some people will see no issue here, and yea, they are right for their own uses. If the Windows Phone store has everything you want, then I can see why you would say, there is no app gap.

No matter how happy you are with the app selection, there IS a time, every once in a while, where you see something, if it's a store, or a TV station or even a radio station, that has APPS, and you sit there knowing deep down inside that there is not a app for Windows Phone.....nor will there be one.

That is the biggest problem with the "app gap" on Windows Phone, disappointment in apps...

I love Windows Phone, no question but, if there was one thing that could stray me over to something else, this would be it...when I finally get fed up...

 

[chezm]

I gotta agree with the crop of people in stating that theres still an App Gap here on WP. While its not by any means end of the world for me, it would be nice to have Clash of Clans so i could play with buddies, Flipboard on WP for news (yes there are alternatives but they arent as good), Game Dev Story (my fav mobile game ever) or even the Cubase remote for my recording studio tools.

 

[rodan01]

It seems that Android apps aren't coming to WP, I don't know how Microsoft is going to close the app gap.

These are a few of things that could help:

*Windows 9 is going to be a hit. The number of users with access to the Windows Store will multiply. Now store apps will run windowed like normal desktop apps, with a more familiar behavior the downloads per user should increase. So, Microsoft will finally be able to leverage their PC dominance to promote development in their mobile platform.

*Excluding games, the app gap won't grow forever, right now we are in the peak of popularity of the mobile platform. As the hype calms down, many apps will die, most of the apps in the store don't make enough money, so at least half of the developers will starve to dead. The app frenzy will stop some day, It stopped in the PC and in the web.

*Games don't use platform specific UI, so they are easy to port using third party tools like Unity. Games don't require a different UI for WP and Windows, so the "Universal game" is even more universal (cost effective). Games is the more important app category by far, so Microsoft has to concentrate there. XBOX could be a key, they have to add the app store to XBOX so mobile games can run in the consoles.

*A cross platform technology has to emerge to improve the margins of small apps. It's too expensive develop for 2 or 3 platforms. HTML5 was supposed to be the cross platform technology, but sadly the adoption is flat. Maybe the "native" support of HTML5 in Android L and WP 8.1 will improve the adoption, maybe new tools will emerge to improve the productivity of HTML5.

 

[DavidinCT]

It's one of those catch 22 type of things... We cant get the apps because the sales are not there for Windows Phone, but, we cant sell the phones because of the missing apps....

The ONLY way to win this battle and get all the apps to finally come over to Windows Phone is....to sell more phones. If Windows Phone could get a 15-25% market share WORLDWIDE, We would not even be having this discussion. Most Devs would be begging to have their apps on WP...

 

[Jorge Holguin]

I will be posting new apps every day as soon I learn from them.
Nokia Pocket Magnifier 2014
Climatology 7/15/2014
Video Tuner [MS] 7/15/2014
Adidas miCoach. 7/20/14
Video Calling Via Tango 7/16/2014

Rando: forgot about this one; it's not new but its a great anonymous sharing app.
Eztube last update 7/7/2014 this is a great, free YouTube client. You can download your videos or just the audio

 

[wpn00b]

I agree...it seems that until 8.1 is out, some devs are waiting to switch over to 8.1 support. I think once the carriers get on board, they will release updates.

iOS 6 is the same. My fianc?e is reluctant to update due to some known issues and she can't update or download certain apps due to iOS 7 requirement. The OS we are running(8.1 preview) is fine...I think. They just need to iron out some kinks and release to public which is starting and the app updates will come.

Honestly if I was a developer I would jump at the chance to excuse myself from the bland standard that is mobile apps these days. Windows Phone/Windows 8.1 has a very unique UI and I've noticed that everyone else is implementing some variation of it. Not sure why it doesn't take off. I have the feeling that once people try it, they are hooked and the lack of applications is the one thing that turns them off of it.

It's the perfect hybrid of Android and iOS otherwise.

 

[dov1978]

The app gap isn't just about a numerical amount of apps compared to iOS ir Android. There is also a massive gap in quality of apps. There are enough apps for me to get by and live without some that I had before on those platforms but the bigger frustration is the quality of apps on WP. When even the most popular apps in the world like Facebook and Instagram etc have very poor WP apps then there is a big problem