Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Mobile

    Microsoft Tweaks Windows Phone Store Design to Boost Mobile Comeback

    Written by

    Robert J. Mullins
    Published November 10, 2012
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

      Microsoft is tweaking the design of its Windows Phone Store to draw users and generate sales as it strives to catch up with competing mobile device makers who are way ahead in terms of both market share and in the number of applications they have for sale.

      Microsoft needs to make the most of the Windows Phone 8 platform because sales of WP8 devices add up to only a 2 percent share of the smartphone market, versus 14.9 percent for iOS and 75 percent for Android, according to third quarter figures from IDC. Furthermore, the Windows Phone Store has only about 120,000 apps, versus 675,000 for Android and 975,000 for Apple.

      However, Windows Phone sales are growing faster than the others and the Windows Phone Store is “adding hundreds of new apps every day,” said Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president for Microsoft, at the Windows Phone 8 launch event Oct. 29.

      Microsoft added a few new features to Windows Phone Store to make it easier for users to find apps and developers to sell them. Among the features is Collections, in which apps are assembled into groups based on type. Some of the collections include apps that are particularly popular or famous, including game, shopping, weather or travel and even relatively obscure topics such as astronomy.

      Which apps get into Collections is decided by Microsoft curators who choose which among them is the best, wrote Mazhar Mohammed, director of program management at Microsoft, in a Nov. 7 blog post.

      “When making their picks, these in-house curators take into account everything from quality to local calendars to customs, so the apps you see depend on both when and where you’re browsing,” Mohammed wrote.

      Windows Phone Store also promotes certain apps that users might like with a feature called “Picks for You.” Based on the Bing search engine, Picks for You shows personalized app recommendations based on things such as what the user has downloaded in the past, what their Facebook friends downloaded, and what apps are typically downloaded together.

      The store also promotes apps that are the “Best Rated” or that are “New and Rising,” meaning they have become suddenly popular.

      The design of the store is important for helping users find apps and for developers to make theirs easy to find, said Carolina Milanesi, vice president for consumer technologies research at Gartner.

      “Consumers need to be able to find their way around the store, find what they need and easily pay for it in a fashion that they feel comfortable with. For developers a well organized store means easy discovery for apps, which is what they all want,” Milanesi said.

      Payment options for buyers include Microsoft Wallet, which allows a user to securely store credit or debit card or PayPal account information. Other shoppers can still have purchases charged to their wireless carrier monthly bill.

      In one sense, the low inventory of Windows Phone Store compared to its rivals may actually help developers because with fewer products, each developer’s apps are more likely to stand out, said Michael Gartenberg, another Gartner mobile analyst.

      As Microsoft seeks to lure users and developers with its currently limited inventory, it has to make the most of the apps it has in stock, Gartenberg added. It’s also not enough just to offer the most popular apps like Angry Birds, Twitter or Facebook, but to also find unique apps that certain groups of users would like.

      “[Microsoft needs] the apps that are maybe not important to everyone in the world but are very important to me as a consumer and I want to make sure that those things are going to be available,” Gartenberg said. “That’s not a simple task for them to accomplish.”

      It’s been said that Microsoft is in a chicken-and-egg situation in that consumers may be unwilling to buy a WP8 device until there are more apps to run on them, while developers don’t want to develop apps until there are more handsets on which their apps can run. Gartenberg calls that “an old story that pretty much any platform has to be able to solve.”

      The television industry faced a similar dilemma as high-definition television (HDTV) became widely available over the past decade. Broadcasters were reluctant to invest in expensive HDTV equipment if there weren’t enough HDTVs in people’s homes and consumers weren’t willing to pay for more expensive HDTV sets if there wasn’t enough HDTV programming.

      Eventually, broadcasters presented highly-rated live events in HD such as the Super Bowl or the Olympics and retailers promoted the sales of HDTVs to watch those events, said Gartenberg.

      “Today, you don’t even think about going out and buying an HDTV. It’s just a TV,” he said.

      Robert J. Mullins
      Robert J. Mullins
      Robert Mullins is a writer for eWEEK who has covered the technology industry in Silicon Valley for more than a decade. He has written for several tech publications including Network Computing, Information Week, Network World and various TechTarget titles. Mullins also served as a correspondent in the San Francisco Bureau of IDG News Service and, before that, covered technology news for the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Back in his home state of Wisconsin, Robert worked as the news director for NPR stations in Milwaukee and LaCrosse in the 1980s.

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Artificial Intelligence

      9 Best AI 3D Generators You Need...

      Sam Rinko - June 25, 2024 0
      AI 3D Generators are powerful tools for many different industries. Discover the best AI 3D Generators, and learn which is best for your specific use case.
      Read more
      Cloud

      RingCentral Expands Its Collaboration Platform

      Zeus Kerravala - November 22, 2023 0
      RingCentral adds AI-enabled contact center and hybrid event products to its suite of collaboration services.
      Read more
      Artificial Intelligence

      8 Best AI Data Analytics Software &...

      Aminu Abdullahi - January 18, 2024 0
      Learn the top AI data analytics software to use. Compare AI data analytics solutions & features to make the best choice for your business.
      Read more
      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Video

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2024 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×