Is Microsoft responsible for many of the zombie apps in the Windows Phone Store?

Headline apps which go un-updated has been a long standing bugbear for us at WMPU, and in general we blamed it on uncaring companies who are not looking after their Windows Phone users.

It may be however that it is Microsoft who should be bearing some of the blame.

Insteon is a new Home Automation partner for Microsoft, and Microsoft is selling their kit in the Microsoft Stores around USA.

They also released an app, which was last updated in September 2014 which one user called “plagued by bugs and poor implementation.”

Now another user and reviewer of the app may be giving us a bit of an insight into the source of the issue, writing:

I spoke in detail to Insteon about the numerous problems and terrible functionality of this app. Amazingly, they advised me that they didn’t develop and don’t update the app – MS did and is supposed to!! Insteon has forwarded all the complaints over the last several.months and MS is basically unresponsive – about their own app!!! Insteon is clearly frustrated as are its Window phone customers. With examples like this, the long term sure doesn’t look good – and the short term at least on this app stinks

That Microsoft develops some high profile 3rd party apps directly is no secret, but I suspect these developer teams likely move from one app to the next, and do not leave much time or resources for maintaining the apps they have created. It is likely many other high profile apps we regularly complain about are in the same boat.

In some ways of course we are looking a gift horse in the mouth – the companies were clearly not going to develop the app for themselves, and having a buggy app is better than not having an app at all, but I suspect the process could do with a lot more transparency, so we know who to complain to if things go wrong.

Do our readers agree?