Early Marketplace for Windows Phone 7 Study Reveals More Free Apps and Higher Priced Paid Apps than App Store

Publisher O’Reilly published a study of its early analysis into Microsoft’s Marketplace for Mobile for Windows Phone 7, the company’s applications store front for Windows Phone 7 software titles, and came out with some interesting findings. Notably, when compared to the iPhone’s App Store, there are more free titles in Marketplace for Windows Phone 7–22% compared to iOS’s 10%. Additionally, when paid titles are concerned, Windows Phone 7 average prices are higher than Apple App Store prices; the mean price for Windows Phone 7 app prices is $6.16 and the mean for the App Store is $3.47.

With Apple’s success with the App Store, mobile users have been treated to quality games and titles for a pretty good price. When the App Store first launched, high-end game titles were around $7-10, compared to those on other platforms which may be about $15-$30. However, as more developers are attracted to developing for the iOS ecosystem and capitalize on the store’s success, there has been a lot of downward pressure in pricing. With the prices of Windows Phone 7 titles being higher, there could be several possible implications for Microsoft. First, for developers, Microsoft may be able to convince more developers as the store’s higher average selling price could yield more revenues for software-makers. Second, for consumers, it’s uncertain whether the difference in prices between Microsoft’s app store and those from Apple’s iPhone will sway consumers.

Additionally, because Marketplace for Windows Phone 7 is relatively new, the sampling of apps is not near as many as the approximately 300,000 apps now available in the App Store. Also, there are fewer app categories, but Windows Phone 7 is launching with a pretty large category for games thus far.

Casey Pham
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Apps, games, Microsoft, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7