App Gap Becoming a Myth by the Hour

[jacobdrj]

My bank, main credit card issuer, my credit union and check are all missing, and it is frustrating. Glad one of my banks support WP with check mobile deposit, or I'd have no recourse.

 

[kencaz]

I have not run into any issues regarding the so called App Gap... Really? How many apps do most people have on their phones of the 1 million Android and iOS? Maybe 30 of the top apps for social, music, video, games... likely that less than 5% of the millions of apps are any good or even worth installing. Considering that MS has come in late in the game they have really made great progress... I just hope it stays that way and not start going backwards again... MS needs to give people a reason to by MS products... Giving everyone access to Office was a terrible move on MS for Surface sales and Windows Phone as well...

 

[prasath bharathan]

Almost all local apps are available for India.i think wp has reached 5% market share in India.so if Ms reaches 20% globally we will get all our favourite apps.lets keep our fingers crossed.

 

[Alfred Morris]

look at the guy they have put in charge of windows phone. He's a charmer-a salesman. They need someone to bust balls and get things moving. Joe Belfiore aint it.

 

[giulianoreali]

I have not run into any issues regarding the so called App Gap... Really? How many apps do most people have on their phones of the 1 million Android and iOS? Maybe 30 of the top apps for social, music, video, games... likely that less than 5% of the millions of apps are any good or even worth installing. Considering that MS has come in late in the game they have really made great progress... I just hope it stays that way and not start going backwards again... MS needs to give people a reason to by MS products... Giving everyone access to Office was a terrible move on MS for Surface sales and Windows Phone as well...

Not everyone uses the same 30 apps though. If you don't feel the app gap, there are others who do. It doesn't stop existing just because you're ok with it.

I personally don't have much of a problem with the gap. To me the biggest problem is that most apps work almost as well as they do on competing platforms, but not quite. There's always something they don't do, and it's annoying. If you want to attract new users, you need to deliver a better experience than the one they're used to, not one almost as good. That's the reason I use my 925 as my secondary device even though it's a super fun phone most of the time. I don't trust WP enough to use it as my daily driver.

 

[kencaz]

Not everyone uses the same 30 apps though. If you don't feel the app gap, there are others who do. It doesn't stop existing just because you're ok with it.

I personally don't have much of a problem with the gap. To me the biggest problem is that most apps work almost as well as they do on competing platforms, but not quite. There's always something they don't do, and it's annoying. If you want to attract new users, you need to deliver a better experience than the one they're used to, not one almost as good. That's the reason I use my 925 as my secondary device even though it's a super fun phone most of the time. I don't trust WP enough to use it as my daily driver.

I would bet that most users will have the same top popular apps directly for MS studios and Nokia. Of course there will be others that may use some unusual apps but not the majority. I was on Android for 3 years before coming to windows phone and totally left the google environment and so far have been able to do everything on my Icon that I did on my Maxx and MotoX faster and with more quality. Like I stated considering the many years Google and iOS have had a head start MS is doing and awesome job...

 

[colinkiama]

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.

That's a great Idea since Most people are on windows 7.