By the end of this year, Apple’s App Store will carry more than 100,000 apps. According to Flurry, which specializes in providing real-time analytics to mobile app developers on the iPhone, Android, JavaME, and Blackberry, new project starts among iPhone developers show no sign of slowing down. Flurry, however, also noticed that a growing number of developers have started to work on Android applications – maybe in reaction to Apple’s erratic App Store approval process. Over the past six months, the number of new Android apps that have integrated Flurry’s analytics doubled and the pipeline for new Android apps is also filling up quickly.
Flurry currently tracks about 1,600 applications. The company argues that because developers often integrate analytics early on in the development process – as early as 6 months before an app ships – it can track “new project starts.” As always, we have to take these statistics with a grain of salt. After all, it’s possible that the number of developers who are integrating Flurry Analytics is growing and not the number of developers in general.
Android Poised for Growth
Still, Flurry’s stats for Android are definitely encouraging, and there can be little doubt that more and more developers are starting to look at Android as an alternative platform – especially since Apple’s App Store approval process continues to be a mess.
Flurry doesn’t track applications on Windows Mobile phones. Microsoft, however, is also trying to woo disgruntled iPhone developers and is now offering instructions for how to port iPhone apps to Windows Mobile.
EBooks on Mobile Phones
Flurry also took a close look at eBook applications and noticed that the number of active users there is showing tremendous growth. Flurry tracked nearly 3 million active users of eBook apps in July, up from just around half a million in March. While Amazon and Barnes & Noble both offer eBook apps for the iPhone (and B&N also offers one for the Blackberry), Sony remains the only major eBook player without a mobile app. Judging from these numbers, the real battle for dominance in the eBook market might not happen around hardware devices like the Kindle or the Sony Reader. Instead, whichever company can dominate the eBook market on mobile phones might have a serious advantage over its competitors.
