Half a million Windows Store apps, the state of the gaming market in Europe, the Oculus Mobile SDK has become available for download - and other news of the week for the mobile developer



    Windows Store stepped over 500,000 applications


    Microsoft reported on a new achievement of the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store - the number of available applications has stepped over 500 thousand.
    To be more precise, the number of applications in the Windows Store reached 150 thousand in March, and in its mobile counterpart - 300 thousand in August.

    It will be appropriate to compare this data with the number of active applications in the stores of the main competitors. So, on Google Play the number of applications in August this year reached 1.3 million, and the App Store reached this figure in September.

    Microsoft is under serious pressure and is trying hard to expand the market for its platforms, so the branded phone is just around the corner. To do this, Microsoft even sacrificed the Nokia brand, and it changed the loyalty program for its products as a whole - for example, Microsoft started releasing its products for Android Gear, and the latest update for mobile Office on iOS made it more functional than on Windows Phone itself.

    If we talk about the total share of mobile devices on Windows, then according to Kantar Worldpanel, Microsoft is experiencing hard times: reaching a peak of 10% in 2013, the share of Windows dropped to 8.1% in 2014. The exception is only a few countries - for example, in Italy, the share of Windows surpassed even iOS and reached 15% in September.


    SuperData gives away its report Eastern Europe Digital Games Market for free


    SuperData provides an opportunity to “ buy ” a report on the Eastern European market for digital games for free . It discloses in detail information about the growth of profit from games in Eastern Europe, which reaches 7% compared with last year.



    Russia occupies a leading position in this market and brings about half of all revenues, which is more than $ 1 billion. Following are countries such as Poland and Turkey, which bring 20% ​​and 14%, respectively.

    In the report it will be possible to find answers to questions such as: how attractive is the Turkish user and whether to “look” at other countries of Eastern Europe, how do users prefer to make payments, etc.

    It also analyzes the growth of social networks and android devices, a decline in interest in MMO games and a weak interest in consoles.
    All this and much more is disclosed in this report and is freely available - do not miss this opportunity!


    Oculus SDK for mobile platforms


    The Oculus Mobile SDK is now available at the Oculus Developer Center. This SDK will allow the development of mobile applications for the Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition virtual reality helmet, which is compatible with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. You



    can pre-order today. Cost will range from $ 199 to $ 249. Samsung’s helmet shipments will begin later this year.


    Facebook intends to gain dominance in Russia with the help of game developers


    Under the loud headline of domination lies the idea of ​​ensuring an influx of new users by offering them many games. These plans were voiced by Facebook development manager for Europe Julien Codornew.

    The idea seems dubious. Especially considering that not so long ago, FB isolated a messenger from its mobile application, arguing, among other things, that most users want to communicate, and this will make it easier for them.

    It turns out a little inconsistent: FB claims that users need communication, but at the same time tries to lure new users with games.

    You can still understand the transition from one site with games to another, but the transition from one set of services and the environment of friends to another is already much more difficult.

    We stock up on popcorn and observe the actions of FB.

    Also popular now: