Google officially passes 100,000 Android apps
updated 12:35 pm EDT, Mon October 25, 2010
Google confirms 100,000 Android app count
Google quietly confirmed this morning that it had officially passed 100,000 active apps in Android Market. The tally has been reached just over two years after Android itself launched and half a year after the 50,000 mark. When it launched alongside the T-Mobile G1, the store had just a few dozen titles and didn't even support paid titles.
The growth rate is still behind that of Apple, which officially hit 250,000 iOS apps in August and is now unofficially over 280,000. It still makes Google's store the second largest and well ahead of rivals like BlackBerry App World, which hit 10,000 well after either Apple or Google.
The combined Android manufacturers' ranks have overtaken iPhone sales on the world stage, but apps haven't completely followed suit. The reasons have never been officially touched upon by Google, but device and version fragmentation has been a problem. In addition to only a third running Android 2.2, the platform has had multiple resolutions and a mixture of form factors that have made it harder to target a wide range of phones.
The platform has still become more of a home for commercial apps in recent months, owing both to its share and to periodic dissatisfaction from developers who want more features or don't like restrictions imposed by Apple.
TAGS :
iPhone, industry, Google, Android, BlackBerry, T-Mobile, Research in Motion, mobile phones, Apple
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2007
100,000 apps, but does it matter?
I have an android phone. I've downloaded plenty of apps. The vast majority of the ones i've downloaded have an 'unfinished' feel to them. They work, sorta, but aren't very smooth in operation. Orientation doesn't work half the time, text flow is horrendous, icons are incorrect resolutions, etc.
Now, there have been a few that were decent, but as I said, the majority I've tried haven't been worth c***.
How many 5 star apps does each have? That matters more than the raw quantity.