Microsoft MVP and developer Matt Lacey spent four months tracking the Windows Store’s “New and rising apps” section for both device types. His findings don't look good for the progress and growth of the Windows Store. Lacey said 62 of the top 72 apps in the new and rising section were exactly the same on the first day of the tracking period as they were on the last.
Every day between March 1 and June 30 (more than 120 days), Lacey tracked the top 72 apps in the Windows Store’s new and rising sections, as Neowin first discovered. Then he performed some basic comparisons to track what was really going on in the store.
We’ve already covered the most surprising finding (or not) that the app selection in ‘new and rising’ was basically static over a four-month period. But here are a few more.
Lacey found that the Windows Store's new and rising section had an average of 1.66 new apps per day, and on 22 days there were no new entries into the category at all. Over Lacey’s tracking period, 202 new entries hit the new and rising chart.
Apps that entered into the top 72 apps in the category—a.k.a. the first page—sat there for an average of 39.35 days, according to Lacey. But 65 apps were re-entries that entered the new and rising section, left the chart, and then returned. Lacey says some apps re-entered the chart three or four times.
Finally, only 10 apps total that were in the ‘new and rising’ chart on March 1 were not there on June 30.
Why this matters: Without hard data comparing the Windows Store to the equivalent charts for Android and iOS, it’s hard to say how poorly (or not) Microsoft’s app store is doing. It’s also possible this is just a case of bad curation on Microsoft’s part, and that ‘new and rising’ is not representative of the store as it should be.
Whatever the case, there’s no question the Windows Store doesn’t have the same depth of selection that you see on Android and iOS. The real takeaway here is that when you want new apps for your Windows 10 device, the “New and rising” section may be the last place you want to look.