As the Times notes, the Windows Phone Marketplace is significantly smaller than its rivals, featuring only 70,000 apps compared to the App Store’s 600,000 and Google Play’s 400,000.

With Silverlight running natively on Windows Phone, developers can get started building apps with the Windows Phone SDK even though devices won't hit the market until the latter part of the year.

An Android app store may be in Microsoft's future, according to rumors. It would be the ultimate revenge against Google, who made every effort to undermine and kill Windows Phone.

Microsoft has today released an app for Windows 8 and Windows RT that will enable users to sync content form mobile devices running the upcoming Windows Phone 8.