Apple continues to be the leader in the mobile app space as Fortune said the company’s App Store has surpassed 250,000 apps in a little more than two years.
Don’t get me wrong, the sheer volume of apps isn’t as important as the number of quality apps but having this amount of programs shows that developers and consumers are highly interested in the platform. I used to hit up Handango for apps years ago but the majority of people didn’t know that phones were capable of more because the “There’s an app for that” campaign.
The demand continues to grow, as there are now more than 100 million iOS devices including the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad. These users are voracious app fans too, as Apple has said users have downloaded more than 1 billion mobile programs and developers have been paid more than $1 billion.
The App Store hasn’t been without its issues, though, as many developers still complain that the rules are arbitrary and unfair and that too many programs get rejected without much merit. Apple insists more than 90% of the programs that get submitted are approved but there is still a vocal minority that aren’t happy with any approval process.
Additionally, the company could be facing its own fragmentation issues, particularly if it introduces the iTV system. Apple iPhone apps work on the iPad blown up in size but these are not a good experience. I would imagine that some programs that aren’t written for a TV interface will not provide that good user experience Apple says it craves.
Developers may also be drawn over to other platforms, as Android, in particular, is becoming a more important platform now that it has outsold its competitors and shows no signs of losing momentum. The Android Market is now filled with close to 100,000 markets but there are still questions about how well content creators can monetize their mobile programs.
[Via Fortune]