Software, Windows Phone | featured news

The Windows Store has passed 150,000 applications, but Microsoft are not making any fuss over it. The psychological 100,000 app mark was passed earlier in the year, and if Microsoft are of the opinion that they don't need to shout out every app milestone, then I am in agreement with them. The hurdle of 'volume' has been overcome, the next step up is 'variety'.

Far from throwing their existing users under a truck marked Windows Phone 8, Microsoft have promised an update that will keep their handsets up to date, and add functionality to their smartphones. It's just a shame they didn't do very well in telling the world that bit of the Windows Phone story.

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced features of its upcoming Windows Phone 8 mobile OS, including built-in turn-by-turn navigation, a secure "wallet" system, a new, faster browser and live tiles that can be custom sized to better fit the Start screen. Perhaps most importantly, the company revealed that the next wave of Windows Phones will really be Windows Phones, because when Windows Phone 8 comes out, it will share a "common core" of software with Windows 8.

Microsoft, struggling to dent the dominance of Apple and Google in the smartphone market, is aggressively courting app developers for its Windows Phone.

Microsoft is launching a new interface for the Xbox 360 game console, borrowing the tile-based “Metro” look that started on the Zune music players, moved to the Windows Phone software and will spread to PCs next year with the arrival of Windows 8. The new version of the software will be downloaded to all users starting December 6.

The Windows Phone Marketplace continues to grow at a steady rate. In little over a year, the Marketplace now has over 40,000 published apps according to an estimate from All About Windows Phone. This number is not the total available to consumers, but the total number that has been submitted to the online store. An estimated 5,500 apps are no longer available to consumers because they were removed by Microsoft or the developer.

Devices running Windows Phone 7 Series software won't hit store shelves until later this year, but Microsoft recently offered a peek into the upcoming OS at its MIX10 conference for developers and Web designers.