Developers who have been wondering about Windows Phone 7 (or who have already embraced it and are interested in its well-being) can now learn more about how it’s been received. Microsoft published some official statistics late yesterday, and they put the mobile operating system off to a good start.
The first data point Microsoft chose to share on the Windows Phone Developer Blog was 1.5 million. That’s the number of times the Windows Phone Developer Tools have been downloaded, which is rather impressive.
Next – while noting that other companies might be quick to claim to have 1.5 million developers – Microsoft indicated that 36,000 members of the AppHub community have become confirmed members of the Windows Phone developer community, and about 1,200 new developers are joining every week.
Then Microsoft stated that there are 11,500 Windows Phone 7 apps, not counting stuff like wallpapers, “lite” apps, and multiple language versions. The company explained, “In fact our ecosystem generated 10,000 apps faster than anyone else, without padding the stats.”
So it looks like many developers have decided that Windows Phone 7 represents an interesting opportunity worth investigating. And for the sake of not getting left behind, that’s something everybody else should perhaps give some thought to, as well.
Anyway, echoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s famous “developers, developers, developers” chant a little bit, the Microsoft blog post conluded by stating, “[D]on’t forget: every developer matters. Every. Single. One.”
