The "app gap" between WP8 and Android/iOS isn't as big as you might think...

[ammarmalik2011]

A huge percentage of iOS and Android apps are literally junk, or are one of 10s of copies of another app.

I love it when a clueless ****** pulls out facts from where the sun don't shine. Really, please tell me where did you read that a huge percentage of apps on iOS are junk? Hmmm? Personal experience? Then name some apps

 

[anon(5399450)]

I love it when a clueless ****** pulls out facts from where the sun don't shine. Really, please tell me where did you read that a huge percentage of apps on iOS are junk? Hmmm? Personal experience? Then name some apps

You are right, honestly, it feels like the PERCENTAGE of junk apps is the same across all platforms. Its just that windows phones have less apps to begin with so you aren't as overwhelmed when searching. And those junk app numbers aren't even really that important when what you should really be focusing on is the number of HIGH QUALITY first and third party apps - to which windows phone has only a handful (years behind iOS and Android).

 

[FindleInClev]

This is interesting convo, because of everyone is right, in some respect. The bottom line is, if we accept the real issue is that devs don't put WP8 at the same priority list, the one thing that can fix that is RT taking off. If companies start thinking of RT inline with ios and android, then they will develop cross platform, and because of the similarity, making a WP8 app for minimal extra investment makes sense. And, if Nokia and or HTC and carriers actually sell some damn phones in real numbers, and the hardware is noteworthy, that will draw a little mindshare as well. But really, if WP becomes a 3rd co-equal ecosystem, it will be because RT and Win8 devices start selling in numbers that make it a stupid business decision to avoid.


The other thought I had, was that going to Microsoft and complaining is IMO the wrong approach, because MS can't be 'out front' with whatever app du-jour that catches on. If you want apps, you need those official apps, and we need to make sure that the companies know that we own WP8, and we are going to download and/or pay for quality apps. Only when the people that write the checks see there is ROI, either in eyeballs or money, they aren't going to move on WP.

 

[ammarmalik2011]

You can't just blame the developers here. Microsoft is to take a blame too. The two most popular apps, official Facebook and Instagram are not available on WP8. Now there is no reason for Facebook to develop an app for this platform, the tiny user base doesn't justify the resources. But since Microsoft is in very good relations with Facebook (Facebook is littered with Microsoft services) then they CAN push Facebook to develop an app. Steve Ballmer can call up Zuckerburg personally and ask him. I know for a fact that if it was Steve Jobs he would have done it already. Microsoft is just sitting on their a.sses and hoping the developers make good apps.

 

[mpelti]

But when you're talking about quality, let's also talk about bad originals and good copies. Words With Friends is pathetic on WP, while Words By Post is my scrabble game of choice, and apparently that of many others.

But the majority of my friends are on WWF. WBP or Alphajax would be great for random games, but not for playing friends.

Because the WP guys never had the possibility of doing those things, they don't see them as necessary.

In my mind, the app shortage is likely to remain as long as the WP market share is so small. If you were an app developer, would you develop for a platform with 2% of the market share? Without market share, apps won't come. Without apps, market share won't come. I think Microsoft needs to take it upon themselves to get the apps developed.

Exactly. It's great if some people here think WP8 is perfect, and meets their needs entirely. But for many people, it's a compromise, and losing apps is the downside, in the same way that for an iPhone, apps are the upside, and the limited UI design and umbilical cord to itunes are the downside. MS saw the need to step in and make sure there were usable facebook and twitter apps. But they need to follow through and ensure that popular iphone/android apps have full featured version on WP8.

If all your friends use Whatsapp for IM, you have 2 choices, use Whatsapp, or stop IM-ing your friends. Or, you can try to convince ALL of your friends on Android/iOS to switch to Kik. Good luck with that.
If you want to use VOIP, yeah, Line/Viber, both extremely solid on Android AND iOS, and better than Skype in my experience, are not available on WP8. So, you have Skype.
This isn't ONLY an argument about whether you can complete certain tasks, it's about compatibility with other platforms as well.

Friends are very important. That's why "alternatives" aren't the answer.
Lomogram is great, but my friends use instagram
4th and Mayor (foursquare) is great, but my friends use yelp.
Alphajax is great, but my friends play Words with Friends.

Any how many of those 600,000 apps do you personally use? The app count non-sense will resolve itself over time, and frankly I think it is a shame. A huge percentage of iOS and Android apps are literally junk, or are one of 10s of copies of another app. ... I'll ask again, how many thousands of apps do you personally need? If you have more than 200 apps on your phone, that would border on the absurd. I am speaking of the collective 'you' so don't take offense. There is a point to this.

It's not about the vast numbers I don't use, it's about the ones I would be using on a iPhone or Android, but can't on my 920. There are several apps that I used to use several times a week, and either they flat out aren't there, or they have limited functionality. In other cases, there are other options, but none that work as well.

For example, I'd never found a nav app that handles traffic as well as Waze. Nokia Drive is fantastic for directions, but it doesn't tell me about traffic. I don't need to know how to get to work, or to my moms house, but Waze could tell me when traffic was bad enough to take an alternate route. It's ETAs were near-perfect, and learned to trust it when it came to sitting in traffic on the highway vs wiggling down side roads.

I love it when a clueless ****** pulls out facts from where the sun don't shine. Really, please tell me where did you read that a huge percentage of apps on iOS are junk? Hmmm? Personal experience? Then name some apps

400,000 apps in iOS have zero downloads: 400,000 apps in the App Store have never been downloaded says report

 

[Lnin0]

As the original poster pointed out - raw numbers are misleading. Manufacturers love these raw numbers because its makes customers all warm and fuzzy feeling they have choices. However, when you boil it down - customers don't want choices - they pretty much all want the same fifteen or twenty things (and not substitutes or half baked versions).

Unfortunately that is where MS still has a problem. WP8 has an "app gap" even when you filter out all the shovelware and just get down to the meat and potatoes. Its getting better and now that MS has combine the market sharability of the phone, tablet and PC developers are going to find it harder and harder to ignore the platform. Still, there is a ways to go.

It would be cool to see the top 25-50 most used, not just downloaded, apps on each phone platform and dig into that to see how much of a 'gap' there really is.

 

[TonyDedrick]

I can definitely see the downside to the lack of apps but I've never been an app person. Most apps you download are interesting for a day and then you say they are stupid and delete them. WP needs those essential mainstream apps though to be competent. The younger crowd especially thrive on stupid apps like pinterest and instagram. They aren't going to buy a phone that can't do things their friends can. Honestly, I am happy with the app selection but again, I'm not an app guy. I do wish I could filter out the apps with languages I don't speak though. It also gets annoying wading through those apps which are basically shortcuts to get you to the mobile sites on the internet.

I would hardly call Pinterest stupid. Very useful place to get ideas for recipes, arts and crafts, DIY household tips.

And I see plenty of older people in Pinterest. It isn't just a young person's app

 

[11B1P]

So, My wife is starting her own business with a friend. She needs a credit card reader to process payments. If WP does not step up or a developer does not step up, she will leave WP for Android. She doesn't want to, she NEEDS to. We need to streamline costs- a smart phone needs to do both. We will not add a tablet to the mix.

yep, just contacted a card reader company and asked them to dev for WP. They said they aren't on WP. Duh, yeah that's why I contacted you!

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

In all honesty, I don't think we're going to have any luck with apps until WP8 overrules Android or iOS (or perhaps both) in terms of marketshare. So say 50% Android, 40% WP, 10% iOS. I think only then will app developers take notice. Whilst ever it is a 3rd place OS, developers can take a very smug attitude towards it. People say this 10% critical mass point... I honestly don't think that's the tipping point. I think you need like 30-40% marketshare to be considered.

 

[edsal]

I fly a lot and they don't have the airlines that I use the most but guess who have it !

 

[ainkor]

I've been waiting for WP8 for what seems like a long ass time and switched from my iPhone 5 to an HTC 8X on Verizon.

Granted I use my phone mainly for business and light social media browsing, I haven't found too many holes yet.

The two reasons I switched will never be fixed by apps on the iPhone..... Crappy excel programs (and yes, I've spent easily $100 in office apps trying to find the best one) and surfing while you talk on LTE.

I was really worried that Excel on WP8 would strip out almost all special formatting like back in the WM6 days, but it's really nice.

 

[FredW3]

In all honesty, I don't think we're going to have any luck with apps until WP8 overrules Android or iOS (or perhaps both) in terms of marketshare. So say 50% Android, 40% WP, 10% iOS. I think only then will app developers take notice. Whilst ever it is a 3rd place OS, developers can take a very smug attitude towards it. People say this 10% critical mass point... I honestly don't think that's the tipping point. I think you need like 30-40% marketshare to be considered.

I think the market share required is less. iOS is currently at 17% and seems to be getting new apps.

Android Market Share Q3 2012: Google's Still Beating Apple, But Will The iPhone 5 Change That?

 

[deadinsidesavior]

Friends are very important. That's why "alternatives" aren't the answer.
Lomogram is great, but my friends use instagram
4th and Mayor (foursquare) is great, but my friends use yelp.
Alphajax is great, but my friends play Words with Friends.

Thank you for agreeing with me.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

I think the market share required is less. iOS is currently at 17% and seems to be getting new apps.

Android Market Share Q3 2012: Google's Still Beating Apple, But Will The iPhone 5 Change That?

JESUS! I didn't realise Apple marketshare had gotten so low with the iPhone!

 

[FredW3]

JESUS! I didn't realise Apple marketshare had gotten so low with the iPhone!

That's why I laugh when people talk about WP or Android as the 'iPhone Killer'. And Samsung sells more smartphones than Apple (granted, over several models, whereas Apple has only one model). Actually, the GS3 from Samsung was the number one seller in the 3rd quarter this year (granted, that was right before the iPhone 5 was released, so the nubers are a little biased).

WP would be better off as a serious competitor (not killer, just serious competitor) to Android rather than as an 'iPhone Killer' , and any phone manufacturer would be as well off being a serious Samsung competitor.

As much as Apple would like us to think they are driving the market, Android and Samsung are the ones to catch now.

 

[mpelti]

JESUS! I didn't realise Apple marketshare had gotten so low with the iPhone!

Marketshare is based on current share or sales, month to month. If you look at mobile traffic, including tablets, iOS is 61%, android is 28%, and more than half of the remaining 11% is non-smartphones. For November, Windows phone was 0.90 percent of mobile browser traffic

mobile market share

 

[tk-093]

I think the market share required is less. iOS is currently at 17% and seems to be getting new apps.

Android Market Share Q3 2012: Google's Still Beating Apple, But Will The iPhone 5 Change That?

That's just the percentages of phones they sold in the 2nd quarter.. not their overall marketshare. It is also just the iPhones sold in that quarter.. not their other iOS devices like the iPad.

 

[inteller]

Marketshare is based on current share or sales, month to month. If you look at mobile traffic, including tablets, iOS is 61%, android is 28%, and more than half of the remaining 11% is non-smartphones. For November, Windows phone was 0.90 percent of mobile browser traffic

mobile market share

that is also tilted towards countries with adequate and affordable internet access, which tends to be more developed countries, where iOS dominates marketshare. iOS has 17% market share world wide, and most of that is concentrated in countries like the US and the UK. iOS has a tough fight ahead of it in developing markets where there are no sweetheart subsidy deals and only warlords and gangsters can afford an $800 phone.

 

[jdawgnoonan]

When you subscribe to a podcast, it always defaults to 'download while phone is charging' and 'only use WiFi'. You have to manually change the settings to do it otherwise.

Is that functionality that is just built into the phone? If so, that is cool. So does it update independently from any client based PC app and does it download automatically but only over wifi and while charging by default? If so, I will probably definitely get a Lumia when I move home.

 

[NOLATechy]

What apps EXACTLY are you referring to. I have switched from Apple to Android and now to WP. As the guy said, "yes there are a few apps that I don't have," but yet they are coming, but MOST of the apps that Android and iOS have are apps I REALLY don't need. Not to mention, lots of the apps on Android/iOS that I don't have on WP are perfectaly capable of accessing through IE. For example. There is not an official "Regions Bank" app for WP, but (using a 3rd party app) I have been able to create a live tile for Regions Bank forthe mobile web site that actually works better than the app I used on Android. It even allows me to save my username and PW so I don't have to log in (something I couldn't do on the Android app). I can HONESTLY say that there are but a handful of apps that I miss from Android/iOS and I know that those apps are in the works. So, it's just a matter of time before Android/iOS won't be able to claim the "App Gap" reason for avoiding the switch. Also, having used ALL THREE operating systems, I believe WP to be the best, easiest to learn and smoothest, fastest and most reliable. I have NEVER had a lag, restart or freeze on my phone. Also, with each update, WP has increased the speed for earlier model phones. iOS can't claim that as my iPhone4 is slower than dirt with iOS7 installed. To each his/her own, but for me, WP is the BEST!