Microsoft looks to make apps ‘a reason to love Windows’

Microsoft is hoping to make apps “a reason to love Windows” in Europe by promoting its UK Internet Explorer lead Gabby Hegerty to a new role leading product marketing at a director level for first party apps and services across the continent.

windows phone

Windows mobile products have been criticised for not having the app availability of its more widely adopted rivals Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. As of June, the Windows Store had 99,000 apps, according to MetroStoreScanner, compared with more than 1 million on Google Play and 900,000 on the Apple App Store.

In May Microsoft’s top marketer, CMO and CFO Tami Reller, hit back at critics, saying its app momentum had already passed what Apple’s iOS had achieved in its first year of app development. 

In her new role, Hegerty will be responsible for developing the European marketing strategy for own-brand apps and services such as Internet Explorer, SkyDrive and Outlook.com. A spokeswoman for Microsoft says the core priority for her team is to establish such apps and services “as a reason to love Windows”.

Windows Phone has a 6.8 per cent share of the European mobile market, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Android dominates with a 70.4 per cent share, while iOS holds 17.8 per of the market.

Hegerty joined Microsoft in 2011 to become Internet Explorer and Windows Live lead for the UK, where she was responsible for campaigns such as the HTML5 animated Brandon Generator ad series.

Before joining Microsoft she held the role of head of digital marketing for Samsung and prior to that also held the same role at Telegraph Media Group.

Earlier this month Microsoft implemented a new “One Microsoft” strategy and major restructure that aims to ensure the way its different products and services are developed and marketed becomes more of a reflection on how people use many types of technology together in their everyday lives. 

Recommended