Microsoft ‘approaching’ 100,000 apps in the Windows Store, boasts app downloads in the ‘hundreds of millions’

Microsoft 'approaching' 100,000 apps in the Windows Store, boasts app downloads in the 'hundreds of millions'

Companies love milestones nearly as much as bees love honey, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise that Microsoft would take advantage of Build 2013 to announce as much positive news as it possibly can. This time, MS head Steve Ballmer has revealed to us that he expects the Windows Store to hit the 100,000 mark (in terms of total apps) sometime this month. Sounds about right if you monitor services like MetroStore Scanner to get a good feel for the OS's progress: it lists over 95,000 apps, which certainly fits the bill.

Additionally, Microsoft also claimed that the very same Windows Store has witnessed app downloads in the vicinity of "hundreds of millions." This vague indicator is not as impressive as it could certainly be if an actual number was attached, but we have a feeling that our friends in Redmond are trying to keep the specifics as hush-hush as possible.

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There have been 900 million Android activations, 48 billion app installs to date

There have been 900 million Android activations, 48 billion app installs to date

What would a Google liveblog be without some updates on Android activations? Well, in case you're curious, the newest figure is 900 million -- a big jump from the 400 million activations reported last year. What's more, Google says there have been 48 billion app installations to date, including 2.8 billion in the last month alone, with revenue per user 2.5 times what it was a year ago. To put that in context, that's not far off Apple's latest numbers: the company has logged just under 50 billion downloads of its own.

Moving on to Chrome, meanwhile, Google is touting 750 million active users, and that includes not just the desktop, but phones and tablets too. That's up from 450 million users at this time last year, with 300 million switching over in the past 12 months. Finally, if you want to get really granular, Google also gave an update on its Google Cloud Messaging service, which was announced last year. Apparently, 60 percent of apps are now using GCM, and 17 billion messages are pushed through the service per day. We'll let you chew on that for a moment while you follow the liveblog, but it seems to us now would be a good time to start placing bets on when we hit the 1-billion-activations mark.

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Japan court rules Apple did not infringe two Samsung patents

Japan court rules Apple did not infringe two Samsung patents

In the latest scuffle between Apple and Samsung, a Tokyo court has ruled that the iPhone 4 and 4S do not infringe on two of Sammy's patents. According to The Asahi Shimbun, a decision on September 14th found Apple had not violated a patent related to app downloads, as Samsung's method is different. A dispute regarding flight / airplane mode also went in Cupertino's favor on October 11th, because the technology in question was regarded by the court as incremental. Only one case against Apple remains undecided in Japan -- for a patent on using "homescreen space" -- but, as usual, don't expect that to be the last chapter in the neverending story.

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Japan court rules Apple did not infringe two Samsung patents originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Oct 2012 07:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink FOSS Patents  |  sourceThe Asahi Shimbun  | Email this | Comments