There have been numerous discussions surrounding exactly how many games and apps are available to Windows Phone 8 smartphones with only 512MB of RAM. All About Windows Phone, a fellow community dedicated to the platform, looked into their database of Windows Phone apps found on the official store to see exactly how many apps and games don't work on low-end hardware. The results are encouraging to say the least.
Before we crack on with the findings, we've covered this issue multiple times in the past, as well as reporting on games being updated to work on hardware with less advanced components - a good example being Temple Run. That said, the majority of apps and games should run on hardware with 512MB of RAM, or so consumers would like to think. Thing is, you'd be absolutely correct in believing just that.
This isn't official data from Microsoft, but AAWP has been fairly accurate in the past when it came to Windows Phone Store figures. The above charts show just how much support is present for Windows Phones with 512MB RAM - 99.7 percent of apps are available (331 labelled 'incompatible'). But we really shouldn't be surprised. Not only have we come from Windows Phone 7 - the first generation of the OS that ran on smartphones sporting at most 512MB RAM, but apps shouldn't really be taking up that much resource (we did previously experience issues with phones with 256MB of RAM).
The games pie chart is interesting too. While we'll be the first to admit that future, more advanced mobile games will require more powerful hardware, it's positive to see that consumers won't be bored should they opt for a Lumia 520 or the HTC 8S. There are a plethora of titles on the store and this report shows that you'll be able to play 99.6 percent of them. But we're not finished as AAWP reveals some interesting details that hide behind the figures produced.
Of the 331 incompatible apps reported above, 199 of them come from just two developers: Maan and AppDesigner.com. Both are utilising app templates to create similar apps, the former being city guides and the latter video-based tutorial apps. If both developers were to be excluded from the data, we'd be looking at just 0.088 percent of apps being incompatible with hardware sporting 512MB of RAM. Good job, developers.
The issue with games is that while the percentage of those that are incompatible are low, these titles are high profile games. Halo: Spartan Assault, FIFA 13, N.O.V.A.3, Tiger Woods 12, Mass Effect: Infiltrator, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Sims 3, just to name a few. It's expected that apps and games will continue to receive future updates to bring them up to speed with latest budget hardware. And since the Lumia 520 is taking the world by storm, it would be almost mad not to have your apps and games supporting the more popular devices.
Should you own a budget Windows Phone, this is further proof that you're no worse off than those with the latest flagships. While a handful of high-profile games are excluded, it's positive to see just how low the amount of incompatible apps and games are. Head on over to AAWP to read the full report.
Source: AAWP
