Instagram on Windows Phone may have stolen the app show, but Microsoft's mobile platform welcomed one more member today.
Waze, the crowd-sourced traffic and navigation app, is now part of the Windows Phone family. However, only users of Windows Phone 8 will have access to road info culled from Waze's 60 million members.
Community-contributed alerts for things like police activity and accidents, hazards, weather and even directions to the cheapest gas stations on your route are part of the Waze package.
Google, which owns Waze, and Microsoft are on far from friendly terms, but it looks like Mountain View is willing to share at least one of its properties, which is only good news for Windows Phone users.
Windows Phone stats
Along with its announcements around Instagram and Waze, Microsoft also revealed a number of stats related to Windows Phone apps. The figures show growth, but also demonstrate the OS has a long way to go before it can catch iOS and Android.
According to Microsoft (by way of TechCrunch), Windows Phone has seen three billion app downloads. iOS, by comparison, has had over 60 billion apps downloaded in all.
Microsoft claimed that everyday, 10 million app transactions take place on the platform, or about 300 million a month. In September, the Windows Phone counted 9 million transactions per day, while in June daily transactions totaled 6.66 million.
In the time since Windows Phone 8's launch, monthly paid app revenue has gone up 181%, and total app downloads have risen 290%. Clearly, the updated OS is having an impact in the right direction.
The figures are still not high for Windows Phone usage (particularly in the US), but Windows Phone handset sales have grown. Numbers-wise, Windows Phone may be far from its competitors, but it does appear to be on an upswing, especially when it comes to apps.
Microsoft said there are 500 million new Windows Phone apps uploaded every day, and today the company could count two name-worthy ones in that figure.
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