According to the company, Microsoft has seen a 110 percent rise in the number of app downloads on the Windows Store in the last year. The increase, as relayed by the firm’s own Todd Brix, is built on the back of 30 percent more active users in the same period, and has led to a more than doubling of “gross sales” for developers.
It isn’t clear what hard numbers those statistics point to. In October 2013, the Windows Store was handling 1.7 million daily downloads. In early 2014, that figure was 4 million. Presuming that the December number was between the two, the company’s intra-2014 growth is less hefty than the numbers described might imply.
Regardless, the company also reports, and I quote, “an 80% increase in registered developers and 60% increase in app selection year-over-year.” So things are pointing up.
All this is slightly moot, given that we are currently in the interregnum between Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Either the unified experience of Windows 10 makes the platform the best, and most vertically, and horizontally integrated operating system, or it does not. If it lands to the positive, then Microsoft will be able to grow its download and developer numbers — the new D&D — quickly. If not, the slow incline will be its personal treadmill.
It’s the last day of 2014, and Microsoft is, in this case, answering questions that it could have been asked a year ago. Something to think about.