Last week we looked at how the iOS App Store compared to the Windows Phone Store in 2014. It was a sobering look at how much work Windows Phone still has to close the app gap between the two platforms. That's especially apparent when you look at 'fad apps' like popular games or apps from a new startups or company.
It's not all doom and gloom for Windows Phone. Over the past two months we've seen major apps officially join the platform. Thanks is due in part to the Universal Windows app model that allows devs to target Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 with minimal work. Recently we've seen updates or releases for apps like Comedy Central, PlentyOfFish, UPS, AutoCAD 360, Barclays Pingit, Adobe Photoshop Express on Microsoft's platforms. The future is looking bright for Windows Phone and Windows 8.
Today we're going to turn the tables and look at some apps that are unique to Windows Phone and not available on iOS. We'll list some of the more popular ones and our favorites. Then you can hop into the comments and tell us what apps you love on Windows Phone that you can't get anywhere else.
Exclusive to Windows Phone
Foundbite
Foundbite is probably one of the best examples of an app that's exclusive to Windows Phone. The app is your portal to the Foundbite social network, where users can create and share foundbites. Users combine photos and sound to create foundbites. We know Foundbite will eventually need to go to Android and iOS to gain critical mass, but we're happy to have it call Windows Phone home for now. [More coverage / Download]
Office Lens
Fans of OneNote should have Office Lens. It's a free app in the Windows Phone Store from Microsoft that allows you to take photos of documents or whiteboards and have the images imported into OneNote. You can then search the text within those photos using OCR technology. [Move coverage / Download] (Edit: Office Lens is on iOS as well, but as part of the OneNote app)
WPCentral
Duh. [More coverage / Download]
Nokia Camera
Windows Phone is home to the best camera application on any smartphone thanks to Nokia Camera. While it's only available on Lumia devices, that represents over 90 percent of all Windows Phones. Which means the lot of you are rocking Nokia Camera! The camera app gives you control over your exposure time, shutter speed, ISO and more! [Move coverage / Download]
TipRanks
This app isn't widely known, but we did cover it when it launched last October. TipRanks is an app that will help you on your road to riches. With the app you can view various financial analysts and their portfolios. You then get their track record and can see if their financial opinion on whether to buy or sell a stock is valid. [More coverage / Download]
SongArc
SongArc is by far one of the most popular music games available on Windows Phone. It's on Windows Phone where you'll only find the addictive game. Look forward to leaderboards and more in a future update to the game. [More coverage / Download]
LocalEvents for Facebook
There's probably no better way to manage events on Facebook than with LocalEvents for Facebook. It's a relatively new app on Windows Phone that allows you to discover Facebook events around you. From concerts to parties to sports events, they all show up on LocalEvents for Facebook. Plus you can use the app to keep your plans under control by seeing all the event invites you've accepted. [More coverage / Download]
Halo: Spartan Assault
Yes you can play Halo: Spartan Assault on PC or your Xbox, but Windows Phone is the only mobile platform you can play! Halo fans should find a fun story in here and the game plays really nice (especially on a device like the Lumia 1520). [More coverage / Download]
Disqus
Disqus is one of the webs most popular commenting platform. You'll find their comment system on thousands of blogs all over the internet! You'll also find their only mobile app on Windows Phone. A recent update added a transparent Live tile and more! [More coverage / Download]
Track Runner
You have plenty of cross-platform running apps on Windows Phone, but Tracker Runner isn't one of them. It's exclusive to Windows Phone and one of our favorite running apps. A future update will make it even better for runners. [More coverage / Download]
SophieLens HD
One of our favorite filter apps for Windows Phone is SophieLens HD. The quality of filters in there are truly exceptional and we use this app all the time when we want to give our photos a little something extra. [More coverage / Download]
Nokia Collection
We can't list every single 'Nokia' app, but we will point out that you'll only find great apps like Storyteller, Beamer, Creative Studio, Refocus and others on Windows Phone. [Mover coverage]
We wanted to focus on a few of our favorite Windows Phone exclusive apps. But we know we missed some. Take a moment to hop into the comments and share your love for your favorite app(s) you'll only find on Windows Phone.
