Window's new Phone App Studio service has received 30,000 applications in the first 48 hours following its announcement.
By the end of last week, the service had received a demand far greater than Microsoft expected, and the company had to "throttle" usage of the tool to keep it running for those who made successful applications.
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According to Microsoft, Windows Phone App Studio is a product for the "savvy developer filled with great ideas but not enough time".
It continued: "If only you had a way to quickly build and test your latest innovations... With the Windows Phone App Studio, you do!"
Boasting the ability to "swiftly" build apps for "immediate publishing, testing and sharing with clients, co-workers and focus groups", as well as adding source code, the service seems an aggressive way for Microsoft to take on its rivals as Windows Phone 8 continues to struggle.
It has been especially criticised for its paucity of apps, which the App Studio initiative is intended to help address.
Neither Apple's iOS nor Google's Android offer direct third-party services to help the technically unskilled build mobile apps. While Google and Apple are happy to hand out software developer kits (SDKs) and other technical resources, Microsoft appears to be the first platform to offer a basic, pre-built component-based environment.
From the nature of early feedback from Phone App Studio users on Microsoft's Dev Center forums, it seems users are successfully building simple applications with little coding knowledge, with examples such as YouTube video viewing apps and basic RSS feeds coming up as app projects.
One coding blogger described the service as "a great new online tool" for making apps "without any programming", but says "there's something in it for us techies as well" in terms of the tool's in-built source code sharing ability.
