On Thursday, Oct. 25, Microsoft launched its Surface tablets to give competition to the popular iPad. However, Microsoft may find it difficult to oust Apple on the apps front, as iOS has a vast range of apps for iPad compared to the apps in the upcoming Microsoft Surface tablets.

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Currently, Apple has over 275,000 apps for the iPad, whereas Microsoft did not disclose the number of available apps for its latest line of tablets.

"I wouldn't say that having 'n' thousand apps is a good thing or a bad thing, I wouldn't say that having ten specific apps is a good thing or a bad thing," said Antoine LeBlond, corporate vice president of Windows Web services.

Furthermore, LeBlond added "But to me, what I care about is developers building apps and people using apps, and the more of that the better."

Users who buy the Surface range of tablets will hope that Microsoft has lined up an array of apps in the Windows app store.

"Part of me had hoped that we'd see more killer apps," said Wes Miller, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland, Wash. "Consumers who buy into the platform on Friday -- unless we start seeing an abundance of apps -- are buying into a promissory note that the apps will arrive."

One of the most popular apps on smartphones and tablets is Facebook, which writes apps only for iOS and Android operating systems, and the company opted not to write an app for Windows operating system.

 "Facebook will or will not decide [to] write an app, that's their decision to make. We're not going to build a native app for them," said LeBlond.

LeBlond also opined that Windows RT customers can go to Facebook's Web site and get a similar experience to the app.

Applications play an important role in the smartphone and tablet industry with many developers writing apps for iOS and Android. Now, developers may have to write a separate app, which runs on Microsoft Windows 8 operating system. Time will tell how many apps await the Microsoft Surface range of tablets.

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