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Top 5 apps still not available for Windows Phone

posted on Dec 21st 2012 by

The last year was very good year for Windows Phone. We saw some great new hardware, but maybe more importantly we saw more apps from big names. Apps like PayPal, Skype, Plex, UrbanSpoon, Crackle, and many more finally came to Windows Phone this year, but as 2012 comes to a close we look back at the top five apps still not available (in alphabetical order).

Dropbox

Last month Dropbox announced they reached 100 million users, which means there are probably a lot of Windows Phone users waiting for this app (including our own Ashley King). Dropbox is widely considered to be the best cloud storage service with many features and apps on practically every platform. Of course one platform that they don’t have is Windows Phone. In October Microsoft announced that Dropbox would be coming to Windows 8, but that still hasn’t happened either. Where are you Dropbox?

Hulu Plus

The two major players in paid streaming video are Netflix and Hulu+. Windows Phone has had Netflix since day one, but Hulu+ is still no where to be found. What’s even worse is there hasn’t been an ounce of news to suggest that they are even thinking about a Windows Phone app. The only positive sign that Hulu+ users have is that they built a Windows 8 app. That”s not much, but it’s more than Dropbox users can say.

Instagram

Like it or hate it, you probably could guess that Instagram would be on this list. The very popular photo app has a lot of lovers and a lot of haters, but one thing is for sure: people use the heck out of this app. Instagram is so powerful that there are many people who don’t use Windows Phone just because this one app is not present. Unlike other apps it can’t be replaced by a 3rd part solution. It is very important that Instagram comes to Windows Phone in 2013.

Pandora

Back in October Joe Belfiore announced that Pandora would be coming to Windows Phone 8. He also said it would come with a free year of ad-free listening. We were very excited. Now, nearly two months later, the app is still no where in sight, and not a word has been said about it. It’s a shame that they didn’t have the app ready for launch (something we could say about all these apps). There has been a lot of drama surrounding Pandora and 3rd party apps for Windows Phone. All can be forgiven if they deliver a great app.

YouTube

Google and Microsoft do not get along. They have made this perfectly clear in the last year. Microsoft constantly jabs at Gmail and Google Search while Google just resorts to keeping all their apps and services off Windows Phone. Perhaps the biggest app missing is YouTube. There are 3rd party apps that do a good job, but at any random time Google can change something and they all break. Microsoft’s YouTube “app” in the Store is just a link to the mobile site. If any app in this list never comes to Windows Phone it will be YouTube.

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There you have it! The top 5 apps still not available for Windows Phone. Would you change any of the top 5? What app are you waiting for?


  • idlelimey

    Nice to see a published piece on these apps. There absence should be highlighted more regularly. Although, I must admit I have no idea what Pandora and Hulu are (perhaps they’re not here in th UK). Instagram… meh. :)

    Over here in the UK it would be good to see iPlayer (BBC) and Tivo/Sky+ remote record apps. Apart from that, I think these all sort themselves out if the market share can, in effect, force developers to write for the platform. It’s a worrying time with some publishers even considering their options with Windows 8! (ahem… Google.)

  • http://winsource.com/ Joe Fedewa

    Yeah Pandora and Hulu are pretty popular in the U.S. Sorry!

  • YOGESH DARGE

    missing google talk, icici mobile banking

  • Dan

    You forgot the part where Joe Belfiore said that Pandora would be coming in 2013. Last I checked it’s not 2013 yet…

  • CX1

    If you set up Plex you can use Hulu and or BBC, Itv etc.

  • http://www.2girls1game.com Ashley K.

    I wouldn’t mind an ally banking app, but they just recently got on board with iPhone and Android, so not expecting too much there. For most things, the mobile site really does work well.

  • https://twitter.com/EpicEuropean Kreft

    Wells Fargo and TD bank would be nice. Steam as well. Other than that and the things mentioned just more games that are on other platforms especially the big ones like minecraft and GTAs.

  • busman001

    Viber…

  • Redux7

    already mate

  • Edgar Cervantes

    So many needed apps! I mean these are basic ones… lol

  • David Pitt

    ..only if you’re on a Nokia. It only half works for the rest of us. No voice calls.
    Not good enough.

  • JSYOUNG571

    I guess they still don’t trust Microsoft when it comes to stability with Windows Phone. I really can’t blame them.

  • http://twitter.com/inguatu ingua2

    First time actually seeing this list. Dropbox and Youtube are two must haves. Instacrap is horrible with square cropped pictures, bad resolution and HORRID filters. Pandora is pointless these days. As long as Amazon Cloud Player hits W8 it’s fine. Hulu+? People actually use that?

  • http://twitter.com/inguatu ingua2

    why? Apple has a crappy platform with stability issues yet people still develop there.

  • JSYOUNG571

    But you don’t see Apple or Google blowing up a whole entire OS with customers and apps on it and restarting over again constantly from scratch.

  • Gnex

    Funny to look at this post and comments. reminds me of my days with Symbian, missing some apps and looking for others.
    Good luck to WP8 and it’s users, hope the ecosystem will continue to grow!
    From a very happy Nexus user

  • Scubadog

    The only one on the list that I care at all about is Pandora, and there are two excellent third-party apps that do the job just fine. I got into a pi$$ing contest email battle with Pandora over why A) no official app and B) why they keep screwing with third-party developers. They said they don’t intend to “waste resources” for such a small customer base (Windows Phone). So, until those mental midgets get their heads out of the up-and-locked position, the third-party app is just fine for Pandora. So, this one should, for all intents and purposes, should be taken off the list.

    As for Dropbox…MEH! SkyDrive is much better, seriously. Hulu+? Again, I’ve got Netflix so why would I need Hulu-I don’t know a single person who uses Hulu over Netflix. While it’s a mystery why there’s no official YouTube app-well, not so much a mystery now that Google has decided to take their lame ball and go home with regards to Windows Phone, the third-party apps (MetroTube and SuperTube) are great if you have to use YouTube. I’d prefer ALL Google apps, etc. die a quick and painful death, though. Instagram? I know all of three people who use it. It doesn’t do anything special or unique compared to the ton of other picture apps out there and popularity for Instagram has been declining. I certainly don’t know anyone who considers this a “must-have”. Why it’s still popular at all is a mystery.

  • http://www.gamesobscura.com/ themizarkshow

    All those are pretty big omissions, but its the smaller/niche stuff that it doesn’t have that keeps me from moving to it from Android…

    As an actual example: over break I decided to start learning Japanese. I’m doing it solely with android apps and it’s going great so far. I could not be doing this without an iOS or Android device though, which would mean I would have to carry a secondary device or go with more traditional forms (books, tapes, etc) and in the past, those have not helped me learn other languages well. Right now, it’s only possible to do this with iOS or Android and I don’t always want or am able to have a tablet with me.

    Until they can narrow that gap in the big names and the niche categories, I unfortunately can’t justify the switch.

  • sandisto

    With the Hulu plus app coming out, we are now down to Instagram and Youtube. It’s understandable that we’ll have to make do with one of the many third party alternatives for Youtube, but Instagram’s absence is plain suspicious. For other major apps & games, either MS or Nokia have heavily supported development of the WP version to make it happen quickly. Presumably they’re trying to do the same with Instagram, but are getting rebuffed. Is the honeymoon over between MS and Facebook (Instagram’s owner)?

  • goldaar

    Have you tried Human Japanese? It’s one of the top reviewed apps in the store and one of the top paid as well.

  • http://josedmorales.net/ Joe Morales

    No longer a Nokia exclusive! Greetings from the future.