The Top Mobile Apps of 2010, According to Apple, GetJar and Others

Today, Apple has released its annual “iTunes Rewind” feature, a listing of the most popular content in music, movies, TV shows and mobile applications in its iTunes marketplace. This year, Apple has placed a large focus on mobile apps, providing lists like the top free and top paid iPhone and iPad apps as well as lists of the top grossing apps on both platforms.

But the mobile world is bigger than Apple these days, so a year-end app list can’t focus solely on iPhone and iPad. To get a handle on other application popularity trends, we reached out to a number of other companies, like GetJar, the world’s second-largest mobile app store, plus other app recommendation and search services like Chomp, AppStoreHQ and Appolicious.

First up, Apple’s data. It’s notable that Apple has named the magazine-style social news reader Flipboard the iPad App of the Year, although it isn’t represented on any of Apple’s lists.  Instead, Flipboard joins other editorially selected award winners like Hipstamatic, a photo-filtering iPhone application that Apple chose over media darling Instagram for iPhone App of the Year, Plants vs. Zombies, which won iPhone Game of the Year and not the uber-popular Angry Birds, and finally, Osmos for iPad, the iPad Game of the Year, which to be honest, hadn’t really registered on our radar at all (although we don’t tend to focus on iPad gaming here.)

The rest of the top app lists from Apple are as follows:

Overall Top 10 PAID iPhone Apps

1. Angry Birds
2. Doodle Jump – BE WARNED: Insanely Addictive!
3. Skee-Ball
4. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
5. Fruit Ninja
6. Cut the Rope
7. ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX
8. The Moron Test
9. Plants vs. Zombies
10. Pocket God

Overall Top 10 FREE iPhone Apps

1. Facebook
2. Angry Birds Lite
3. Words With Friends Free
4. Skype
5. Tap Tap Revenge 3
6. The Weather Channel®
7. Paper Toss
8. Bing
9. ROCK BAND FREE
10. Talking Tom Cat

Overall Top 10 GROSSING iPhone Apps

1. MLB.com At Bat 2010
2. Angry Birds
3. Call of Duty: Zombies
4. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
5. FriendCaller 3 Pro
6. Zombie Farm
7. TomTom U.S.A.
8. TETRIS®
9. Plants vs. Zombies
10. Doodle Jump – BE WARNED: Insanely Addictive!

Overall Top 10 PAID iPad Apps

1. Pages
2. GoodReader for iPad
3. Numbers
4. Angry Birds HD
5. Keynote
6. Glee Karaoke
7. WolframAlpha
8. Pinball HD
9. Friendly for Facebook
10. Star Walk for iPad

Overall Top 10 FREE iPad Apps

1. iBooks
2. Pandora Radio
3. Netflix
4. Google Mobile App
5. Solitaire
6. Movies by Flixster – with Rotten Tomatoes
7. IMDb Movies & TV
8. Kindle
9. Google Earth
10. Virtuoso Piano Free 2 HD

Overall Top 10 GROSSING iPad Apps

1. Pages
2. Numbers
3. Keynote
4. LogMeIn Ignition
5. SCRABBLE for iPad
6. Documents To Go® Premium – Office Suite
7. Angry Birds HD
8. Real Racing HD
9. Plants vs. Zombies HD
10. Proloquo2Go

Next Page: GetJar’s data

GetJar, an independent app store, is the second largest in the world in terms of downloads. Due to its size, the trends it sees are worth watching, too.

GetJar provided us with two year-end lists. One is a standard top 10 list based on downloads. But because that list includes the obvious players like Facebook and Google, we also asked for a top 10 newcomers list too. For this one, GetJar provided the top 10 downloaded apps that were also uploaded to its site in 2010.

These lists are below:

Top 10 Downloaded Apps in 2010

1. Facebook Mobile
2. eBuddy Messenger
3. Nimbuzz
4. mig33
5. Opera Mini Web Browser
6. Google
7. Yahoo! Mobile
8. GetJar Apps
9. Bitstream BOLT
10. Google Maps for mobile featuring Latitude

Note: GetJar Apps is a launcher to the m.getjar.com site.

Top 10 Downloaded Apps in 2010 That Were Uploaded in 2010 – a.k.a. “Newcomers”

1. Yahoo! Mail
2. UC Browser 7 4 English
3. UC Browser
4. Warships – Sea on Fire
5. FBChat
6. Forticlient Antivirus
7. Yahoo! News
8. Zlango Icon Messaging SMS
9. NetQin Mobile Guard
10. Yahoo! Cricket

Next we have AppStore HQ‘s Data, a site that focuses on iPhone and Android applications, as well as apps for the mobile Web.

On iOS (both iPad and iPhone), AppStore HQ says the “hottest” apps for 2010 are as follows.

Hottest iOS Apps for 2010

1. Netflix
2. Plants vs. Zombies
3. STREET FIGHTER IV
4. iBooks
5. iMovie
6. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
7. NYT Editors Choice
8. MobileMe Gallery
9. Fruit Ninja
10. WIRED Magazine

Hottest Android Apps for 2010

1. Twitter
2. Kindle for Android
3. Angry Birds
4. Dropbox
5. Vlingo: Words to Actions
6. Rhapsody (Beta)
7. Google Shopper
8. Mint.com Personal Finance
9. Angry Birds Lite Beta
10. Skype

Now for the data from Chomp, the search engine and mobile app that helps you find the best iOS apps. Did its data match up with Apple’s?

Chomp says its most searched apps for 2010 (excluding Facebook and Twitter) were:

Most Searched Apps in 2010:

1. Adobe Photoshop Express
2. Pandora Radio
3. Google Earth
4. Shazam
5. Remote
6. TapDefense
7. Movies by Flixster
8. Moodagent FREE
9. JellyCar
10. Tap Tap Revenge
11. Lose It!
12. Topple
13. Paper Toss
14. Google Mobile App
15. Cube Runner
16. Dragon Dictation
17. NYTimes
18. IMDb Movies

Chomp notes that some of these apps were not searched for directly by name, but discovered based upon a filtered search (applying category or price).

Appolicous has been tracking what’s popular on both iPhone and Android. It provided us with the “most listed” apps (those that appear in Appolicious users’ app lists) and the “most owned” apps.

Most Listed iPhone Apps (in user app lists)

1. Facebook
2. Evernote
3. Twitter
4. Yelp
5. Pandora Radio
6. foursquare
7. Angry Birds
8. Dropbox
9. Skype
10. Google Earth

(NOTE:  Google Mobile App was tied for 10th place)

Most Listed Android Apps (in user app lists)

1. Angry Birds
2. Evernote
3. Google Maps
4. Foursquare
5. Google Shopper
6. Pandora Radio
7. Remember The Milk
8. Springpad
9. TWIDROID PRO for Twitter
10. Dropbox

Most Owned iPhone Apps (in user app lists)

1. Facebook
2. Google Mobile App
3. Pandora Radio
4. Shazam
5. Google Earth
6. Skype
7. Evernote
8. Kindle
9. Twitter
10. Remote

Most Owned Android Apps (in user app lists)

1. Google Maps
2. Facebook for Android
3. Barcode Scanner
4. Amazon MP3
5. YouTube
6. Google Goggles
7. Advanced Task Killer
8. Google Sky Map
9. Pandora Radio
10. Kindle for Android

Most Downloaded iOS Apps (Free)

1. Appolicious for iPad
2. Appolicious
3. Flipboard
4. Dragon Dictation
5. Netflix
6. Tap Tap Revenge 3
7. ABC Player
8. Evernote
9. Pandora Radio
10. Lose It!
11. Space Miner Blast
12. Siri Assistant
13. W.TV
14. Unblock Me FREE
15. 3D Brick Breaker Revolution FREE
16. Crush the Castle Free
17. GodFinger for iPad
18. Google Earth
19. Dexter
20. NinJump

Most Downloaded iOS Apps (Paid)

1. Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus
2. Spider-Man: Total Mayhem
3. Real Soccer 2011
4. Angry Birds
5. Zombie Wonderland
6. The Word Chase
7. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD
8. Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge
9. Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior
10. The Last Airbender
11. Word Warp
12. NBA Elite 11 by EA Sports
13. WordZinga!
14. Angry Birds Seasons
15. Splinter Cell Conviction
16. Skate It by EA
17. Doodle Jump
18. WordSnake…Words Without Borders
19. PREDATORS
20. Fruit Ninja

Most Downloaded Android Apps (Free)

1. Angry Birds
2. Skyfire Web Browser 3.0
3. Barcode Scanner
4. Angry Birds Lite Beta
5. Flash download
6. Skype Mobile on Verizon
7. Appolicious AndroidApps.com
8. Facebook for Android
9. Kindle for Android
10. Lookout Mobile Security
11. Skype
12. Talking Tom Cat
13. Porn Videos
14. Flash Player 10.1
15. MSN Talk
16. AndroMoviX
17. ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner
18. Paper Toss
19. Pandora Radio
20. Porn Videos private FREE

Most Downloaded Android Apps (Paid):

1. Jewellust
2. FIFA 10 by EA Sports
3. Robo Defense
4. Asphalt HD
5. Angry Birds
6. Talking Carl
7. Advanced Task Manager
8. Abduction! 2
9. Beautiful Widgets
10. Doodle Jump
11. Root Explorer (File Manager)
12. Car Locator
13. Deer Hunter 3D
14. Fruit Ninja
15. Skies of Glory
16. The Sims 3 for Android
17. Tanks!
18. Speedx 3D
19. Pocket God
20. Real HDMI