BlackBerry 10 Trounces Windows 8 Phones With 100,000 Apps: Will BB10 Catch On?

Update: An earlier version of this article mixed up the numbers for Windows Phone Store with Windows Store. Windows Phone Store has over 150,000 apps, while Windows Store features about 40,000.

BlackBerry is getting ready to launch the Z10 smartphone in the United States, and there's already some good news for U.S. buyers: BlackBerry has surpassed its own app goal.

When the BlackBerry Z10 was first unveiled, the company boasted that it would offer 70,000 apps at the smartphone's launch. That's a big number; Microsoft only passed 40,000 apps by the end of January 2013 for its Windows Store, while Windows Phone Store had 150,000 back in December. Despite doubts, BlackBerry announced on Thursday that its app store surpasses 100,000 programs.

"The response to the BlackBerry 10 platform and applications has been outstanding. Customers are thrilled with the applications already available, and the catalog just keeps growing, now with more than 100,000 apps," Martyn Mallick, vice president, Global Alliances at BlackBerry, said in a press release.

"Top brands and application providers are joining us every day and are seeing the benefits of being early supporters of the new platform," he added. "We constantly hear from developers that the BlackBerry 10 tools are easy to build with and that we provide opportunities for app differentiation that they do not see on other platforms."

Interestingly, one thing aiding BlackBerry is the fact that BlackBerry World (the app store) can support Android apps. So far, Android apps based on Jelly Bean 4.1 can't run on BlackBerry 10, but there's a patch coming soon for that, too.

"Developers can sign Android apps for inclusion on BlackBerry World, which takes some of the gloss off an otherwise impressive milestone," Matt Brian wrote on The Verge.

Regardless, BlackBerry 10's app count is definitely a good talking point for the Canadian company. BlackBerry notably tried to woo app developers by promising to write checks for programs that failed to generate $10,000 in their first year on the market, and now Microsoft is trying to do something similar. Redmond announced that developers could get up to $2,000 for 10 apps as long as they're published in Windows Store by June 30.

Of course, it's too soon to say whether or not the apps BlackBerry and Microsoft are getting for these promotions are worth it to consumers, but it's obvious that the two companies need apps to bolster their new ecosystems. Either way, 100,000 apps is a nice start for BlackBerry.

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