Microsoft has often been criticized for Windows Phone's lagging app catalog. In a bid to lure in more (aspiring) developers to their ecosystem they've launched a new tool that's particularly easy to use as it requires no knowledge of coding; you simply use the web-based Windows Phone App Studio to do all the work for you.

While you can't create particularly sophisticated programs using the App Studio, there are a range of templates available that allow you to build basic apps by dragging and dropping text, images and other content into a window. If you want to get tinkering after the App Studio has done its work, the tool will provide you with the source code as well as a finished app that can be sideloaded to a registered device.

That said, the tool won't allow you to just go and publish it straight to the Windows Phone Store, instead you'll be required to pay the Dev Center fee like every other published developer. If you do go ahead and purchase a Dev Center account you'll find a new live chat service designed to help devs create quality Windows Phone apps.

The tool is designed to produce apps for "savvy developers" with "great ideas but not enough time", according to the App Studio website. Despite Microsoft's efforts to bring lots of apps to their mobile platform, it's not necessarily app volume that's the issue - the Store has over 160,000 apps available - but more a lack of quality apps to use and popular titles like Instagram dragging their feet on official support. The Windows Phone App Studio may entice new developers to the create apps for the platform, but it may not solve the issue of quality.