Matt Rosoff
windows phone fake youtubeJackdaw Research (used by permission)
Microsoft's Windows Phone is a fine platform with a huge app problem.
Popular apps available for iOS and Android simply aren't there for Windows
Phone.
Worse, Microsoft's app store is filled with fakes and ripoffs — and some of
those are among the 100 most popular.
A 30-page report published today by Jackdaw Research highlights how bad the
situation is.
For instance:
A search for "YouTube" on the Windows Phone returns dozens of obvious
fake YouTube apps. Check out a screenshot here. The real app is circled.
A search for "Swing Copters," a game for iOS and Android created by the
maker of "Flappy Bird," returns more than 25 fake apps with "Swing Copters"
in their title. In fact, the app isn't available for Windows Phone.
Of the top 100 most popular apps, 38 of them are also available on iOS
and Android (in other words, Windows Phone has very few exclusives), 38 are
generic apps like flashlights, 9 are substitutes for popular apps that haven
't come to Windows Phone yet (like Snapchat), 8 are fakes, and 7 were made
by Microsoft.
There's usually a lag of at least 200 days between the time a popular
app comes to iOS and Android and when it comes to Windows Phone. Microsoft's
platform is almost never in the first wave of releases.
The paper also suggests that Microsoft may never be able to turn it around.
Because Windows Phone's market share is so low — it peaked at 3.4% in the
last quarter of 2013, and has since fallen to 2.8%, according to IDC — that
developers see little reason to build apps for it. The lack of apps drives
people to other platforms, which keeps popularity low, which keeps app count
low, and so on, into a death spiral.
The researchers don't think Windows 10 will help. Microsoft says with
Windows 10, programmers will be able to make apps for PC,s tablets, and
phones without much extra work for each platform. But the types of apps that
are needed on Windows Phone typically aren't the same kinds of apps made
for PCs, and developers may not do the work necessary to customize their
apps for the smaller screen because, again, there's not enough opportunity
to justify the cost.
Jackdaw's recommendation for Microsoft? Build a great flagship phone,
explain what Windows Phone actually stands for, and somehow convince
developers that they can make money on the platform.
Easier said than done.
