Number of iPhone apps surpass Windows Mobile

I thoroughly enjoy using the 3rd party applications on all of my mobile devices and many applications serve essential functions not found in the applications and utilities of the operating system. While the iPhone device is fun to use, the hardware is not the best available in the mobile space. That really doesn’t seem to matter much though as the Apple App Store and iPhone applications are the “killer” feature of the platform, IMHO. 3rd party applications have been available for years on Windows Mobile, S60, Palm, and BlackBerry devices, but until Apple put the software store on the device it seemed to be mainly the die hard phone users who were finding, downloading, and installing applications. According to MacDailyNews Apple developers have passed up Windows Mobile in the number of applications, 25,000 compared to an estimated 20,000.

It is a bit difficult to count the number of available Windows Mobile applications since there is no central repository of applications and I am not sure if this count considers only the applications available today. Windows Mobile/Pocket PC has been around now for nine years while the Apple App Store is just about 8 months old. I personally have a ton of 3rd party applications on my iPhone and find them to be quite good for the most part. The sheer number of applications alone doesn’t mean everything though since there are tons of junky apps for both the iPhone and Windows Mobile, but it does show that there is considerable interest in the iPhone. If I was a developer I think it would be tough not to develop for the iPhone given the fact that you wouldn’t have to worry about multiple screen sizes and resolutions, different device form factors, and all the other variables seen in other mobile operating systems. I have seen more and more traditional Windows Mobile developers releasing quality iPhone applications and am pleased to see them expanding across platforms.

With over 25,000 applications now available for the iPhone/iPod touch I hope that Apple continues to update the store to make it easier for users to find the good and worthy applications. It gets more and more confusing trying to find applications to try out due to the sheer number of applications available.

I have also been browsing through the Android Market on my G1 and even with priced applications now available I am not seeing anywhere near the quality of applications present on the iPhone yet. (story Link)