Looks like it's time for Windows Phone fans to get out their party hats and sparklers, because Microsoft's mobile operating system has earned itself another achievement. The Windows Phone Marketplace is now home to over 50,000 published apps — 50,126, to be precise — just a little over a month after it surpassed the 40,000 app milestone. Of course, not all of those apps are available right now, as All About Windows Phone estimates that around 6,000 have been removed and some are only available in certain countries. The estimated number of apps available to U.S. Windows Phone users is 42,655.
The final months of 2011 have been pretty big for the Windows Phone camp thanks to the arrival of Mango and the growth of the Marketplace. The good news for Windows Phone fans (Windows Phans?) is that with apps being added at a rate of around 265 per day and rumors of some major Nokia-made handsets coming soon to the U.S., it doesn't look like the platform will be slowing down in the near future. So Windows Phone users, what are some of your must-have apps?
