A month from today, on October 25, Microsoft will launch Windows 8 in New York City.

With 30 days to go before Windows 8 and Windows RT become generally available, how are things looking from an app perspective?

As of yesterday, September 24, there were 2,188 Windows Store applications available internationally, with 1,593 of those available in the U.S., according to Directions on Microsoft Vice President of Research Wes Miller. There are approximately 150 apps that are available for x86/x64 machines and not ARM, Miller said. In other words, there are about 150 apps in the Windows Store currently that do not work on both x86/x64 (Windows 8) and ARM (Windows RT).

(Miller said he is monitoring the Store total using publicly available information. Microsoft is not providing app counts to him or to others publicly.)

The total is up from about 530 apps available in the Windows Store as of mid-August, Miller said. There are about 60 to 120 apps being added to the store daily, he said. Microsoft fully opened the Windows Store for app submission globally as of September 11.

Of the global apps Miller found, 84 percent listed were free. Games and Entertainment are still the leading categories, though productivity is showing considerable gains, Miller said.

Miller is collecting stats on Windows Store -- a k a, "Metro-Style" -- apps only. These are applications built using the Windows Runtime (WinRT) programming interface, which are available for discovery, purchase and download via Microsoft's app-store, which will be part of Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets and PCs.

Windows 8 users also will be able to discover and obtain information about Desktop Apps, which are Win32/64 applications that will be allowed to be listed in the Windows Store on Windows 8, but which won't be directly downloadable or purchasable through the Windows Store.