Apps...will they really come or are we just kidding ourselves?

[Bruce Abbott]

I switched from iOS to WP8. I'm hoping there are many others like me and that this will attract those developers. I also have faith that the correlation between Windows 8 and WP8 will be enough to convince developers to come to the platform. I am sold on the solid hardware and "Modern UI", I just need the developers to be sold too.

 

[dogfish54]

I think Windows 8 will be a catalyst. If you look at it as of right now, it looks bad. IOS has an established foothold and Android has gained popularity in the low-cost phone and tablet market as well as the high end.

But things can change quickly in the consumer market. One part of me thinks that IOS and Android have so much momentum that they are now unstoppable. Another part says that Windows 8 is going to be unstoppable and that Android will get pushed out because it doesn't have a decent desktop counterpart and Android has a number of issues (legal and otherwise).

We'll see, I don't think it's a done deal either way. iPhone5 hardware is limited in my opinion due to screen size, price and proprietary crap. Android is limited due to fragmentation, with Samsung and Nexus devices being the two big flavors (forgetting amazon for a moment).

The Windows 8 game engine availability will change things, but it's going to take a little bit of time, probably a couple months, but I think we'll see a steady stream of apps from January; including Pandora

 

[socialcarpet]

I have everything I need except Citrix receiver, and that'll be along before too long. Personally Im not the least bit concerned. Microsoft has wisely ensured the future of WIndows Phone development by making great developer tools and more importantly, by making it very simple to develop an app for the Windows 8 desktop and Windows Phone at the same time. The latter is what convinces me more than anything that we are going to see a rising tide of great apps in 2013.

 

[kcovert]

A major issue here has been that the WP8 emulator requires SLAT, (Secondary Level Address Translation), no comment. Many developer?s current CPUs don?t support this and it will slow down the flow of native WP8 apps.

Also as you might of read in my other posts I?m looking for a touchscreen laptop to do WP8 development that must have more than 8GBs of RAM I need to run my VMs for non Win8 and WP8 development and they simply don?t exists. Gesture mice and touch pads don?t cut it and many devs travel to client sites so a desktop solution is out.

It?s one thing to cause new hardware expenditure and another for there being nothing to buy.

 

[dogfish54]

I have everything I need except Citrix receiver, and that'll be along before too long. Personally Im not the least bit concerned. Microsoft has wisely ensured the future of WIndows Phone development by making great developer tools and more importantly, by making it very simple to develop an app for the Windows 8 desktop and Windows Phone at the same time. The latter is what convinces me more than anything that we are going to see a rising tide of great apps in 2013.

Mark Templeton (CEO of Citrix) presented to a group of IT pro's a few weeks ago on the future of Citrix. I was lucky enough to be there. He was demoing with a Sony Win8 tablet / convertible and was saying how we was using it at home. It's very clear that they have a heavy focus on IOS and Android, but it was also clear that they don't always agree with the decisions that Apple makes.

EDIT: @Socialcarpet - As you likely know, Citrix receiver is in preview for Windows 8 and WP8 (it was on one of his slides). It was clear that Citrix is no longer all about Windows, but windows phone was mentioned several times in his presentation.

 

[WalkerHall]

A little of both, I think. We'll never have an Android- or iOS-sized marketplace. However, as Microsoft builds on - and promotes - the platform, we will see more app developers adopting Windows Phone. It remains to be seen if the platform will capture the big-name commercial developers or not, though.

I agree with this. It will get better but I am not excepting an IOS sized app store. The only thing I'm truly missing right now is an app from my bank. I have to go to the office and use the desktop. Not too great a inconvenience.

 

[sniffs]

Apps that I firmly believe will pull people to Win8 but aren't available, are

Google+ (same one as what's on IOS)
Pinterest
Instagram
StumbleUpon
Pulse (I see it on the market, but it won't install on any of the WP's I've had. Lumia 900, HTC Surround, nor 8X)
Flipboard
feedly
News Republic(this is on the market, but it's a TERRIBLE excuse for an app. The Android/IOS app are far better)
YouTube
Amazon MP3
Pandora
Pocket(aka Read-It Later)

I would consider these to be "top" apps, yet Microsoft doesn't think so.. apparently they have 46 of the top 50 apps, yet I just listed 12 that are no where to be found..

I want to see those apps designed by the actual developer. Windows Phone has tons of app clones that do nothing but hurt the phone's image because the clones are simply not as good as the actual apps.

They also need to start getting rid of all the sex apps. If I'm browsing News, why am I seeing Kama Sutra apps?? wtf?

 

[LongLeggs]

I always laugh when they say oh this ecosystem has this many apps. REALITY CHECK, YES IOS and DROID have tons of them, but I only use maybe 6 apps, and windows has them anyways.

 

[aubreyq]

Apps that I firmly believe will pull people to Win8 but aren't available, are

Google+ (same one as what's on IOS)
Pinterest
Instagram
StumbleUpon
Pulse (I see it on the market, but it won't install on any of the WP's I've had. Lumia 900, HTC Surround, nor 8X)
Flipboard
feedly
News Republic(this is on the market, but it's a TERRIBLE excuse for an app. The Android/IOS app are far better)
YouTube
Amazon MP3
Pandora
Pocket(aka Read-It Later)

I would consider these to be "top" apps, yet Microsoft doesn't think so.. apparently they have 46 of the top 50 apps, yet I just listed 12 that are no where to be found..

Pandora will come early 2013. That was stated during the October 29 WP8 "unveiling." I don't have a lot of faith that we will see Google+ or YouTube since Google doesn't seem to be playing well with Microsoft when it comes to mobile. Hopefully Instagram will come but from what I've read they are currently NOT working on one.

 

[swanlee]

There is over 100,000 apps as far as raw numbers goes that is fine, I'll never be able to look through all of them. They key is to just get the apps people are actually using on other platforms. Also there are alot of apps that are made that are similar to the IOS or Android apps to fill the void until and official app shows up.

 

[inteller]

Apps you will never see on Windows Phone: Anything from Google.

Someone mentioned they want AA and Tunein. I have both on my 900. Just another example of the cluster**** MS has created with WP8, after telling everyone they would recompile existing apps in the store to run on WP8 without modification.

 

[ammarmalik2011]

Microsoft is focusing more on quality over quantity.

Are you serious? Have you used the Facebook and Twitter app? Have you used Whatsapp or Viber? App quality on Windows Phone is quite frankly, trash at the moment. If there is a multiplatform app that is on iOS, Android and Windows Phone, you can bet your bottom dollar it will be the buggiest on Windows Phone. This I have noticed with a lot of apps, some which I mentioned above.

 

[cp2_4eva]

I am never concerned about the number of apps, but I am concerned about the quality of app. I think WP8 is lacking in the polish of the apps. On the flipside the Surface tablet and Win 8 apps seem to be multipying quickly and the apps seem to be more polished as well. I like the Hulu plus and ESPN apps that just came out.

 

[iamtim]

Oh my god. WP8 has only been out for what, five weeks? As I understand it, developers didn't get the SDK until *days* before the final release. What do you guys want? It takes time to recompile and iron out bugs on a new operating system.

 

[philpeeps]

I am never concerned about the number of apps, but I am concerned about the quality of app. I think WP8 is lacking in the polish of the apps. On the flipside the Surface tablet and Win 8 apps seem to be multipying quickly and the apps seem to be more polished as well. I like the Hulu plus and ESPN apps that just came out.

That new Win8 ESPN app is SEXY!!!

 

[CustomX5]

After reading Steve Ballmer's Nightmare Is Coming True - Yahoo! Finance I don't feel optimistic

 

[Coffee]

After reading Steve Ballmer's Nightmare Is Coming True - Yahoo! Finance I don't feel optimistic for MS

I won't waste my time picking apart each of their points, but the article is full of assumptions and garbage conclusions. They take a few valid points and extrapolate them to mean the demise of MS. MS has their problems but this is just click-bait.

 

[I Unquello]

How about apps that only WP has? I'm sorry, but Wordament is so addictive that I don't play many other games anymore...

 

[NickA]

After reading Steve Ballmer's Nightmare Is Coming True - Yahoo! Finance I don't feel optimistic

Read the whole article again, and look at the 10 points made. Look at points 1 and 3. Nothing beats the iPad right now and we already know that. No one expects to produce the next "iPad killer". Read point #4, it starts out with "We're not sure if this happening or not". How about point #6, Office loses relevance? Since when? Google Docs is not an Office replacement.

It's just another article speculating and voicing their opinions. Means nothing, Does Microsoft have work to do? Of course. So does Apple, Google and RIM as well.

 

[Blkacesvf41]

In the meantime you can try this one..
WP8 Radio | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)

Dude you rock!! Thanks, that's not bad at all. Pretty basic but it will do for now. Come on Tunein!!