According to recent statistics from AndroidLib.com, the Android Marketplace saw 9,331 new mobile applications added to its app store during the month of March, 2010. This number is even more phenomenal when you look at the Android Marketplace’s historical growth. In December of last year, for example, there were 3,807 new applications added to the Android app store. By January, 4,458 more were added. In February, 5,532 arrived. And now, 9,331. If this trend continues, we could possibly see a month this year where the number of new applications tops 5 digits. And with numbers like this, Android could soon give Apple a run for its money.
Since the launch of the Google Android Market in October 2008, the developer ecosystem surrounding the OS has seen rapid growth. One week after the Market’s launch, there were just 167 applications available for download. That may seem like a lot, but when you positioned it against Apple’s App Store – now with over 160,000 applications – it was clear that Android had a long climb ahead.
But climb it did. By September 2009, the Android Market passed 10,000 applications. By February of this year, Android Market share doubled again, positioning the Google Mobile OS to overtake Palm and the Market size grew again to include 19,897 applications. Today, the number of Android applications has reached 27,243 and there’s no sign of its growth slowing down.
Although Apple still has far more mobile applications available for download, relative to the number of apps housed, Android is actually one of the fastest-growing mobile application stores on the market today. According to mobile analytics company Distimo, Android hasn’t quite reached 30,000 yet, but in a statement last month from a Google representative, the company claimed there were “approximately 30,000 free and paid apps.” Maybe they were just rounding up?
