Android Market on track to surpass Apple App Store
Google's efforts to market the Android OS platform to software developers appears to be working. A strong open source community combined with developer events and free developer phones have lead to droves of applications popping up in the official android marketplace. It's no wonder Steve Jobs and Apple have recently been in the news seemingly trying to hurt Android in any way they can. Patent Lawsuits against HTC which target their Android phones; changes to the iPhone App Store policy that specifically block the porting of apps to and from their platform; and Steve Job's public statements that Android is for porn, even though the iPhone is just as capable of browsing the red light district of the the interwebs.
In the last few days Adobe announced that they've stopped working on iPhone software and have now focused on the Android platform. Beta testing for Adobe Air has been very positive with some developers at the Adobe Air blog saying that they've ported software over to Android in as little as ten minutes. This is huge news as there are literally hundreds of thousands of existing applications that could potentially be ported to the Android from Flash. The reasons for Apple's stance on Flash have been eluded to on many blogs and news sites: in short Apple has locked down their app store by only approving apps built using their proprietory development tools. Also, Steve Jobs has no qualms with publicly bashing the Adobe Flash software as non-secure and unstable.
To further the anticipation about the Android Market, the recently leaked snapshots of the next Android release "Froyo" show some much needed enhancements to the Marketplace interface. Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg because as the Marketplace grows, it's becoming harder and harder to browse for applications. The screen shots show a new option to "update application automatically" which resolves a common gripe for many Android users. The next step is for Google to capitalize on it's core strength and make searching and navigating the Marketplace easier.
Number of Applications Added to Android Market Each Month (April isn't over yet.)
Androlib.com is also reporting that the Android Marketplace is growing by almost 10,000 applications per month. At present Androlib.com has the Android Marketplace surpassing 50,000 applications. When the Motorola Droid was launched less than six months ago there were just shy of 10,000 apps. Thats a 500% increase in less than half a year.
When you take into account the developer focused environment built by Google, the anticipated volume of flash applications about to be ported, upcoming improvements to the Marketplace in the next generation of Android's OS, and Androlib.com statistics showing huge growth, even conservative estimates show that the Android Marketplace will surpass the number of applications of the Apple App Store by this time next year. These are exciting times for Android fans.
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awesome. if i buy a new device it will be android i cant deal with apple or the new windows platform. i like the idea of freedom even when im not exploring the limits.
Hmm, think it’s about time for the Apple Board to “take care” of Jobs again. He seems to be getting worse. I read one article that before the G1 came out, he went to Google and told Smidt that if he makes a phone he’s sue the piss out of him. I’m all for making technology better, but if someone wants to take it a step further there shouldn’t be lawsuits and degrading speeches running rampent. At this rate he’s gonna have another heart attack, or whatever it was he had.
Microsoft’s wp or wm is based on having no limits and google has always been based on secretive and evasive action.
good on explisiv
This get as many apps as you possibly can thing is annoying. Too many are the same app but for different cities or crap like that. To many do the exact same thing with a different skin. Come to think of it individual backgrounds can be put up as an app. Just makes it take to long to find what you want unless its in the top downloads list.
thats an app almost every 5 minutes around the clock.
@jlechner –
With current popularity of everything mac, (macbook, ipad, iphone), I doubt the board will “take care” of Steve. He’s making wrong decisions, but he has millions of fanbois thinking Apple is new religion and Jobs is God.
I say the more the merrier. It wouldn’t be fair to only allow one company to create a certain type of app, so the market wouldn’t get flooded with duplicates. That’d be a monopoly. I use a variety of apps and if I come across one that does the job a bit better (be it GUI, functionality, or whatever) then at least I know there are alternatives I can switch to.
one quality of google is…. they have hardly developed anything from scratch whether be it email (gmail) or google maps…. they all were started by some other companies and than google decided to jump in and delivered the best…. well I hope they continue the same here….