Microsoft's Windows Phone was first released last year and since then, it has been gaining momentum in terms of competing with other smartphones in the market especially in terms of applications.

Based on the report released by Distimo, Microsoft's app store is now the fifth largest operating system application store. The report also mentioned that out of the 300 applications in the Windows Phone marketplace, there are 101,000 free downloads and 20,000 paid downloads in the U.S. daily. The Windows app store is also consistently adding new content through paid and free applications every month. According to the report, there are around 1,300 new apps every month and an average of 1,650 new free apps also in a monthly basis. Publishers are also steadily growing with rate of 700 new publishers every month.

The reason for this steady growth was also discussed in the Distimo report. The report states that "Following a slow start in November 2010, the total applications in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace store began to accelerate in February 2011. The main cause for this was an explosion of free content in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace."

IDF, a research and appcelerator firm also discussed other reasons about the growing interest of developers in Microsoft's app market. According to the research firm, why there is an increase in developer interest about Windows Phone 7 could be because of the news that the company is teaming up with Nokia, the Finland-based firm to create new devices for the platform. The research firm further supported this statement through the release of their research report. According to the firm, "When asked why developers are more interested in Windows Phone 7 now than a year ago, a plurality (48 percent) said it was the Microsoft/Nokia partnership."

Though Microsoft Corp's app store was able to grab the fifth spot, the company is still miles away if compared to other competitors. Apple's app store remains the biggest app store which has 4.35 million free downloads and 319,000 paid downloads on a daily basis. Other competitors in the app market include Google's Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, and Blackberry App World.