Microsoft Says Its WP 8 Marketplace Will Accept Apps from More Countries than Android

Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform has yet to become a mature operating system, but the Redmond-based company is working hard to provide both users and developers an intuitive and easy-to-use environment.

Windows Phone 7 missed lots of features and provided limited usability, but the same happened with Google’s Android when it first came to market.

In the meantime, Microsoft added more features and improved the overall experience of the operating system, but also made developers’ life easier by introducing lots of tools.

In this regard, the company announced that Windows Phone 8 marketplace would support app submission from more than 180 countries. Moreover, Microsoft also stated that paid apps would be distributable to all those over 180 countries that accept app submissions from devs.

This is an incredible upgrade if we take into consideration that Windows Phone 7.x marketplace only supports 38 countries. To emphasize its achievement, Microsoft compared its coverage for app submission to Google’s Android marketplace.

Google Play, formerly known as Android Market, allows developers to submit apps from 31 countries, while paid apps are distributable in 129 countries. Both numbers are lower than Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform for the moment and will be even lower the moment WP8 marketplace goes live.

Although, it would make sense for Google to add support for more countries, so more developers can submit their applications in the marketplace, the search giant has yet to announce any plans in this regard.

Windows Phone 8 SDK is expected to arrive in late July, which means that the actual platform may be launched in the next few months.

Even though Microsoft confirmed it does not feel the need to launch its own Windows Phone 8 devices, Nokia’s Stephen Elop stated that the Finnish company’s first smartphones to be powered by WP8 will arrive by the end of the year. Stay tuned for more updates on the matter.

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