iPhone apps not so unique: Android, Windows Phone catch up to iOS offerings
Although boasting about the size of one's app store has its place--really it's the quality of the apps that matter and nothing beats those "big titles" that people want and use.
PCWorld has done an interesting analysis of Apple's top 35 apps to see how the other platforms compare. Android, comes the closest, offering all but 3 of the top 35 apps on the iPhone. Their biggest gap of course is in games--something we've pointed out before. Next, however is Windows Phone 7 which offers all but 8 of the top 35--beating out Symbian and Blackberry (guess WebOS wasn't worth looking at). That's not too shabby for the new guy in town who's been in the market a little less than seven months.
Part of the difference is Microsoft has been very aggressive in courting Apple developers to either switch or port over their apps, often offering financial incentive to do so e.g. covering the cost of development. Combined with the Xbox LIVE gaming system and their relationship with the "big" developers there, Microsoft has made tremendous in-roads into taking away any "exclusive" app that the iPhone may offer (and more often than not, the Windows Phone version looks better).
We may not have the numbers, but we have the apps.
Related story: Beating Apple's exclusivity: How Microsoft caters to developers while Google does not
Source: PCWorld/Yahoo News; Thanks, hd7guy, for the heads up
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GP07 says:
Without reading the story or which 8 are missing from WP at this point I'll make a guess and say those 8 will probably show up soon after mango hits and are probably not on WP right now due to lack of API access, like skype for example.
Saljen says:
The title for the article makes you assume that Apple had some legal hold over the exclusivity of certain apps. When really, they just don't have as many blockbuster exclusives as they used to. Very misleading.
Daniel Rubino says:
No offense, but read the article then. People who complain about titles of articles without addressing the content lose a notch in my book. Fact is, a lot of us *don't* interpret exclusive in the sense you mean it but rather in the idea "I can't leave the iPhone because I need 'X' app".Even PCWorld/Yahoo use the same phraseology "Apple's Popular Apps Not Exclusive to iPhone".
mittortz says:
I like your writing Daniel, but I'm going to disagree with you here. First, he did address the content of the article by stating its contrast to his interpretation of the title. That's fair - he didn't just read the title and go straight to the comments, which is what an unfortunately large number of readers do.Second, I think he has a point. There is a perceived difference between "being exclusive" and "having exclusivity" because of legal contracts often made in the software business with regards to the platform a piece of software is available on. By saying "iphone loses exclusivity" you imply they once "had exclusivity", and more often than not that phrase also implies a contractual agreement. PCWorld/Yahoo used "not exclusive" as a generic adjective, and therefore goes without that implication.
Daniel Rubino says:
Altered title.
strictlystyles says:
I relaly think you are still misunderstanding the title. when he says exclusive it doesn't mean exclusive in a legal sense, but more exclusive as in these apps seem like ONLY the iphone has them(and even apple markets them as such), and dont think about wp7 having them. i think your being a bit petty here.
Dave Blake says:
The biggest surprise to me when I made the switch from Android was that I didn't have to give up any apps. I was expecting to give up some apps I was just hoping I could find something close to replace some of my most used apps. To my surprise I have found everything I need and most of the WP apps are better than the Android equivalent.
Mike Cerm says:
I think the title of this post is a little misleading. While Android and WP7 may be catching up in terms of number, and having many of iPhone's most popular apps ported to their platforms, the quality of those apps is still miles apart.I don't own a WP device, but I've used Android and iOS enough to know that just because an app is available on both platforms doesn't mean it's the SAME app. In every case I can think of where an "equivalent" Android app exists, the iOS app performs better, has more features, is more polished and nice-looking, be easier to use, or some combination of those things (but usually all of those things).Since I don't own a WP device, I can't say whether the same is true for WP.
Daniel Rubino says:
Title is not misleading, you're just making a different argument.Fact is, if Netflix is offered on the iPhone and it's offered on Windows Phone 7 than you can't say "only the iPhone has it", which is the point of this article.You want to say the iPhone's app is better, which is a qualitative statement and I doubt holds water for a lot of apps (just because it's on another platform, doesn't make it a "port" either--most WP7 apps look drastically different than their iPhone counterparts due to the Metro UI design requirements).
Mike Cerm says:
If you say, "Android has Facebook and Twitter, just like iOS has," it does imply that these apps exist, and are roughly equivalent on bother platforms, and they are not.Android is catching up with iOS in terms of apps, but ONLY if you only care about quantity, and not quality. iOS apps ARE unique, because the top iOS apps are generally pretty good, and where the "same" app exists for Android, the Android version is never as good.However, this may not be true of WP7, as I've said before. Since I haven't used many WP7 apps, I don't know if they're on par with iOS or not. But Android apps definitely are not.
Daniel Rubino says:
No one here is defending or arguing for Android (for that fight, head to our sister site Android Central).Like I said, you're making a qualitative argument based on personal tastes. I don't think what you are saying is objectively and universally true--even though I think Android's UI is quite hideous. But I think the fast growing user base of Android over iPhone suggests that Android is still doing something right.Regardless, as you point out, you don't use WP7 and since this is a WP7 focused site, that is what we're interested in. In general, the agreement amongst users here is that Metro UI (WP7) has a much nicer, cleaner look than even the iPhone and terms of functionality, our apps due tend to meet or exceed those of the iPhone.Unless you can provide concrete examples of how iPhones apps are better than their WP7 counterparts, I'm not sure where else this conversation can go.
Winterfang says:
Take in mind that some of the WP7 apps look so much better is not even funny. Though they do lack funtionallity. The IMDb app is my favorite one to show off.
futurix says:
There is only one app I really miss on WP7: Grindr. However looking at the prominent picture of Samsung Omnia 7 on their website (and the fact that they have registered grindrwindows.com domain) - I'm sure it will be out eventually.
