If you have ever tried a Windows Phone device, we’re sure that you can agree that the operating system feels really fluid and smooth, which is a stark contrast to earlier builds of Android which felt a tad slower, at least until Project Butter came along. However despite the operating system running fluidly and sporting a pretty unique and neat layout, Microsoft’s mobile operating system just does not seem to be taking the same way that iOS and Android does, and one of the reasons would be its lack of apps. While there are plenty of apps in the Windows Phone store, it pales in comparison to iOS and Android, not to mention the platform does lack some major apps which many iOS and Android users rely on an almost daily basis.
Speaking to the folks at Engadget, Nokia’s Global Head of Smartphone Marketing, Vesa Jutila, acknowledged that this was indeed one of the shortfalls of the Windows Phone platform where he revealed that one of the biggest complaints customers had was that the platform is currently lacking some of the apps that they want. An example would be Instagram, which has yet to officially launch on Windows Phone, leaving the door wide open to alternatives such as Hipstamatic’s Oggl. Despite that, Jutila did state that Nokia is currently addressing these gaps very strongly with the help of Microsoft.
It does feel like a vicious cycle since developers tend to prefer to develop apps on platforms which has a huge market share, which increases their chances of their app being bought/downloaded. At the same time for a platform to increase its user base, one of the ways would be to have plenty of apps for users to choose from. Windows Phone is indeed playing catch up at the moment, but we have to wonder just how long it will take before they finally do.
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