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According to the latest number-crunching by AndroidLib, the public Android Market has hit the 20,000-app mark. The majority (62.3%) are free, but don’t think that it means they’re poor – au contraire, mon frère, 44.6% of apps enjoyed a 5/5 star rating. At last count, Apple had 100,000 apps, but they did have a bit of a head start, and for those who have had any experience with the iTunes App Store, they’ll know that quantity doesn’t always trump quality. Developers still aren’t too happy with the money they’re making from Google’s mobile platform, which lines up with AndroidLib’s stat that a solid 30.4% of the apps are downloaded less than 50 times. The figures are unofficial, but it gives us a good idea of how well the ecosystem is doing – we’ll be keeping an eye out for other benchmarks to see how how the Android Market does in the long run.
Update: Google has actually corrected this figure – by their count, it’s closer to 16,000.
[via AndroidLib]
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
