The Windows Phone Store is the one stop portal for owners of Windows Phone devices that want to download applications and games onto their smartphones.
And just as Microsoft’s mobile platform has shown impressive signs of growth, the apps repository is also raking up milestones after milestones. Redmond has just revealed that Windows Phone Store has recently crossed 2 billion downloads.
In fact, the company announced that while it needed three years to reach the first billion downloads, the second billion was managed in just the last six months.
The technology titan has succeeded in expanding the reach of its mobile app store to users in 191 markets, though not all of them get access to paid application downloads. But the statistics do indeed show that the Windows Phone mobile platform is growing by leaps and bounds.
Todd Brix, the general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Phone apps and store operations talked about this milestone in a new blog post while also detailing that the company is adding new payout markets and expanded payment options to increase monetization of the apps:
“After this change is implemented, developers in these 6 markets will be able to submit both free and paid apps to the Windows Phone Store to reach users in 191 markets. We also continue to add carrier billing connections. We now offer 35 connections in 23 markets, with new connections growing at a rapid pace.
On average, developers are earning 3 times more revenue per active user in markets where carrier billing is offered. This increases to 6 times more revenue on average in emerging markets where credit card usage is more limited.”
Starting this week, Microsoft will make available six new markets that will allow developers to receive revenue from their Windows Phone apps.
With the inclusion of countries like Costa Rica, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malta, and Trinidad and Tobago, the markets that allow developers to monetize their apps now total 128.
Sales of the various Windows Phone products has exponentially increased in the last few months, thanks in no small part to the success of the various new Nokia Lumia models. With this impressive milestone for Windows Phone aps, this much is certain that the stars are aligning at the right time for Redmond.
