Windows Phone & Windows 8 app numbers hit half a million

Microsoft has confirmed there are now more than half a million apps available to download for Windows Phone and Windows 8 devices.

VentureBeat said Windows Phone apps carry the weight of those available, with 340,000 on its mobile platform and 187,000 on the computer-based store.

However, the stats were last counted back in September, so it's likely they have increased in the last 60 days.

The company released the statistics on its 'By the Numbers' index, along with an array of other stats around its ecosystem, partners and users.

1.5 billion people around the world are using Windows and approximately one in seven are using Windows every day. Over 250 million people have a OneDrive account, while Skype users make an average of 50 billion minutes of calls per month.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser accounted for 58 per cent of desktop web use in September 2014 and its Outlook.com email service has over 400 million active accounts - supposedly this comprises those who use their email actively and others who need an account to access other services such as Office 365 (7.1 million users) and XBox Live (48 million members).

Although Microsoft's app share is catching up with its rivals, it still has a long way to go until it can match Apple's 1.3 million apps for iDevice users and Android's 1.46 million.

The software giant is placing greater emphasis on app creation with the announcement last week that it would be opening its .NET and Visual Studio Online development tools to everyone as a show of its commitment to increasing app count.

The company currently has more than six million people using .NET and two million Visual Studio Online users.