http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/27/windows-phone-marketplace-hits-50000-published-apps/
I do really like the look of the Lumia and will always have a soft spot for Nokia, having to use Windows for the development OS is the large mental barrier that has caused me not to have a dabble, as it feels, most likely wrongly that it will take a while to get into.
On this respect I am selfishly glad Microsoft decided to hamper it by calling it "Windows Phone" which I am sure the man in the street has a negative view off compared to the likes of the non Windows branded Microsoft products like Xbox
It doesn't sound like anyone is making fuck-you money on the Windows Phone 7 app store, so I'm just looking at this as a learning exercise.
And I have one in the works, yes.
http://www.bitsabound.com/GlutenFreeRecipes-Windows-Phone-7....
A big problem I've had is finding an app exists and being surprised that it exists. If it doesn't get advertised, there's no way to know it's there.
Anyways, being the first on WP7 is risky but can be very profitable. Kik Messenger grew a lot thanks to their WP7 app (the article is in TC, can't search for it now). There are few apps so there is less competition and you can get a lot of new users.
While I'm not authorized to reveal the percentage of our approximately 36 million unique installs (i.e., installs on unique devices) that can be attributed to Windows Phone devices, I can say that we're continuing to invest in the ongoing development of our Windows Phone app.
Our soon to be released, next version of the Windows Phon app will feature a number of enhancements related to features made available in the recent Mango update (i.e. Windows Phone 7.5).
For more information on our Windows Phone app, including screenshots and comparisons to our apps for other platforms (e.g., iOS, Android, Blackberry, WebOS, etc.), please refer to the following link:
Nothing earth shattering, but has help buy my tech toys :)
I spent a month creating clones of Koi Pond, Fart App, Hipstamatic, and acoustic guitar. In something like 9 months I've sold ~1000 apps. I've made about enough money to pay for the phone and for a year of publishing access to the marketplace.
Love how Mango looks as well.
It's really a shame that the phone hasn't had even decent sales numbers as IMHO it has the best developer experience (yeah I know, end users don't care about the dev experience :))
For nothing more than a side project, I'd call it pretty successful...but the little insight it's given me into the WP world is that the platform really isn't doing well.
