Perhaps Microsoft can take heart from mobile rival Palm. Last week, mobile analytics firm Medialets reported that the company's App Catalog storefront hit 1 million downloads 18 days after opening in connection with the launch of the Palm Pre. The store went live with only a handful of apps and still has not fully rolled out its software developers kit for creating third-party apps.
Even so, both Microsoft and Palm have a ways to go to catch up with the 1 billion downloads to date from the App Store.