Microsoft’s Windows Phone more than doubled the size of its app catalog in 2012, adding more than 75,000 new apps and games from third-party developers, according to a Microsoft blog post published overnight.

Todd Brix of Microsoft writes in the post, “We literally set a new foundation this year with the deployment of all-new infrastructure – new client platform, new developer toolset, new Dev Center, new catalog infrastructure, and all-new global service. I know transitions can be frustrating, but it is now complete and customers and developers are already beginning to reap the benefits with a better app and store experience, faster performance and more robust tools.”

Even at 150,000 apps, Microsoft’s mobile platform has a long way to go to catch up to the likes of Apple iOS and Google Android, each of which has more than 700,000 apps in its store. But the larger number at least increases the likelihood that Windows Phone will have the apps that users want or need, which is what really matters in the end.

We’ve seen this play out in the discussion over my colleague Taylor Soper’s quest for a new smartphone. I suggested that Taylor consider an HTC 8X Windows Phone, vs. an Android or iPhone, but journalist Kelly Clay cited a lack of “critical apps” that she uses on a daily basis as the reason that she’s unable to rely on solely on a Windows Phone for now. (For what it’s worth, Pandora is coming to Windows Phone in 2013.)

That underscores the fact that the quality of an app catalog really depends on your own personal preferences and needs. But doubling the overall size of the catalog over the course of a year is a nice little milestone.

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