Today we're going to check out the top 25 free apps in the iOS App Store and see if they're available for Windows Phone. If an app isn't available, we'll try and offer an alternative for Windows Phone fans. Let's go.

Time to check in on how the Windows Phone Store is doing against competitors. While the app marketplaces for Android and iOS are larger than Windows Phone, the gap between high-quality apps gets smaller and smaller each week.

24. White Tiles 4 - Don't Touch The White Tile 4 ( with Piano music and Guitar music just Tap it and watch your Step and it has 17 Awesome Game Modes better than Flappy Bird)

The data below was taken on July 1st and represents the top charts for the iOS App Store in the United States. (If you go into the rankings now, the apps might have moved position)

The data from their store stats is available as a free online service. In their store stats you get daily rankings, ratings, featured placements, historical rankings for apps and games that you can separate by country and categories.

The following data comes from App Annie ( appannie.com ), an analytics and business intelligence company with co-headquarters in San Francisco and Beijing. They offer store stats for iOS, Mac, Google Play, Amazon Appstore, Windows Phone Store and Windows Store.

Games are very popular on mobile platforms.

On iOS, 13 of the top 25 free apps are currently games.

None of those chart topping iOS games are available on Windows Phone

Of the 12 free apps on iOS, only 6 are available on Windows Phone

Microsoft still has a lot of work to do in order to get developers creating apps and games for Windows Phone. The data above helps show what's currently popular among users on one of the most popular mobile operating systems. Right now a lot of those games might be fads, but they're fads that Windows Phone owners are going to miss out on. While you may never want to play Kim Kardashian: Hollywood on Windows Phone, a potential customer might and will chose the platform that has it now. Windows Phone then loses out on the sale because a game that's popular today isn't on the platform.

That's been a struggle for Microsoft and isn't an easy problem to solve. You need more users to get more developers interested in devoting resources to Windows Phone today and not a few months later when the gaming fad has sailed.

Games are one thing; they're transient and don't last long. While it'd be really nice to get the hottest game today, a healthier ecosystem needs more apps with substance. Windows Phone is doing a lot better today than it was a year ago, but it has more work to do.

Of the 12 apps in the top 25 that weren't games, only 6 are available on Windows Phone. We have Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, Pandora, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, but we're missing out on some really great apps like:

WatchESPN

FIFA Official App

YouTube

Snapchat

Google Maps

Univision Deportes

Three of those apps are super popular right now because of the World Cup. Anyone walking into a store to buy a new phone will turn down Windows Phone because they can't watch the World Cup live on their new smartphone. Instead, they'll turn to iOS.

Now it's a little unfair to look at just the top 25 apps AND games on iOS and compare it to Windows Phone, but it's a good way to get a quick snapshot of the difference in the two ecosystems. So what's missing on Windows Phone when we look at the top 100 chart for iOS? We'll ignore games, because they're pretty temporary in popularity, but here are the apps missing on Windows Phone:

WatchESPN

FIFA Official App

YouTube

Snapchat

Google Maps

Univision Deportes

SoundCloud

Gmail

CloudDownload for SoundCloud

Free Music Download Manager for SoundCloud

Tinder

Fly – A fast new video editor

Uber

Yahoo Mail

Flipagram

RetailMeNot Coupons

Dropbox

Google Translate

Music Download for SoundCloud

Fitbit

Chrome

Cartwheel by Target

Those are just the apps in the top 100 missing on Windows Phone. Hit up the iOS Top Charts on App Annie, and you'll find dozens of games missing from Windows Phone like Clash of Clans, Plants vs. Zombies 2 and others.

It's also sad to see apps like ESPN Radio, Kik, Pinterest and Expedia in the top 100. But wait, we have those on Windows Phone? Yes, ESPN Radio and Kik haven't been updated in years while Pinterest and Expedia are nothing more than web-wrappers posing as apps.

Is all hope lost? No, not at all. We wouldn't be running a site dedicated to Windows Phone if we didn't believe in the future of the platform. We just wanted to paint a picture of the current app landscape compared to iOS. There's still a lot of work to be done by Microsoft to help get these publisher onboard with Windows Phone.

There's also a huge opportunity still for indie developers on Windows Phone. Look for apps that don't exist on Windows Phone by browsing the top charts for iOS and Android. Don't build a generic knock-off, but take the time to study what that app does and built an alternative worthy of Windows Phone. Find a MySpace in those iOS charts and build a Facebook on Windows Phone.

Did you move to Windows Phone from iOS? What apps are you still hurting for? Sound off below. Windows Phone faithful? What do you think needs to happen for developers to take Windows Phone a little more seriously?

More to come!

In our follow up article we turn the tables: What are the top apps + games for Windows Phone and are they on iOS?