Microsoft talks user numbers, new features for Windows Phone App Studio
Two weeks ago Microsoft released its Windows Phone App Studio to beta. The service is designed to encourage the development of new apps and help non-developers "code" their own cool creations. No, you will not be building the next million dollar hit game using this alone, but you can see a smaller project from concept to completion here. The company expects the service to be used by hobbyists and enthusiasts.
Today Microsoft is talking numbers about where the service stands at this point in its brief life. Emilio Salvatore Prieto claims that within the first 48 hours of the beta going live more than 20,000 people had signed up and over 30,000 projects were underway -- a number that now stands at 55,000.
The company also is taking this opportunity to announce new features that are rolling into the Studio. "We’re adding new functionality to provide connections to additional external data sources; improving code legibility; and adding new templates", says Prieto. In addition, Flickr feeds will be added as a data source to aid integration into apps, as well as some behind the scenes enhancement to help the service run better.
Apps created in Windows Phone App Studio do not publish to the Windows Phone Store but, for those who feel they have a creation worthy of that, a Dev Center license can be purchased later and the app can be pushed out to the public.
Image Credit: Duc Dao / Shutterstock