Apps are the lifeblood of any mobile operating system these days, so Nokia smartphone users will be pleased to hear that Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace has just hit the 30,000 app milestone in record time. 

Developers give Nokia and Windows Phone the thumbs up

Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7 less than a year ago, at a time when Apple's App Store, the Android Market and Nokia's own Ovi Store were already well established players in the app store game.

But the Windows Phone shopfront has certainly been making up for lost time, and has just passed the 30,000-app mark – the kind of number that establishes itself as a real heavyweight now in the mobile market.

More impressive than the figure itself, though, as the time it's taken for Windows Phone to get there: just over eight months, which is as quick as Apple managed with the App Store, and more than twice as quick as Android in reaching the same milestone.

And this – don't forget – before the Windows Phone Mango update even hits the market, and more significantly before the first Nokia Windows Phone arrives to provide a massive springboard for the platform to reach a far greater global audience.

In other words, Windows Phone is in greate shape and is poised to go from strength to strength once the partnership with Nokia kicks into top gear.

Via: ZDNET