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Software Google's Android OS: Rise of the Apps
Jason Mick (Blog) - April 8, 2010 9:45 AM
Print 58 comment(s) - last by Jameichat.. on Apr 28 at 6:54 PM

Android apps are on the rise. They may hit 5-digit monthly gains in April.  (Source: Android Lib)

The number of paid apps (purple) is also on the rise.  (Source: Android Lib)
Google's app market is exploding with new apps

Android is booming.  It more than doubled its market share last quarter, knocking off Palm for the fourth place spot in the smartphone market.  It stands about one good quarter away from jumping Microsoft and seizing third place, nipping at the heels of second place player Apple.

Apple has long dismissed Android, stating that it simply doesn't have enough apps to compete with the iPhone.  That's quickly changing though.  In July 2009 Google's Android Market was only adding about 1,500 apps a month.  That number has steadily soared upwards and last month, it added 9,330 new apps.

Currently there are over 42,000 apps in the Android Market.  If the current pace of growth acceleration continues, Google could match Apple's current app count (around 150,000 apps) within a year or less.  Of course Apple is perpetually adding new apps as well, but many fear that the Apple market has become a bit bloated.  It's harder for new developers to get noticed on the App Store that on the Android Market, arguably.

Other factors work in Google's favor as well.  The inclusion of multi-touch and the release of a native SDK should help developers make top of the line ports or new titles for the smart phones.  And Google allows certain kinds of apps that Apple doesn't currently, such as third-party browsers.

One sign of health in the Android Market is the rising number of paid apps.  Another perpetual criticism of the platform leveled by iPhone proponents is "all the apps are free".  That's hardly true any more; today 40.4 percent of apps are paid (Google follows an identical 70-30 developer-publisher revenue split as Apple).

Android's apps also appear to be doing well overseas.  There's a ton of new apps for the EU, China, Russia, and others.

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Obsession
By Gio6518 on 4/8/2010 9:58:43 AM , Rating: 5
There's too much obsession over quantity of apps instead of quality of apps...

seriously how many GPS or Video player or MP3 Player apps do you need, look at iPhone apps how much redundacy is there its insane, post how many different kind of apps there are and apples app store will drop down to 5,000 or so apps. not saying android market is much better.




RE: Obsession
By smackababy on 4/8/2010 10:02:41 AM , Rating: 2
But having 5,000 unique fart apps makes the iPhone such a robust platform!

The number of apps is nearly irrelevant when compared to the number of quality apps.


RE: Obsession
By reader1 on 4/8/10, Rating: -1
RE: Obsession
By steven975 on 4/8/2010 12:10:52 PM , Rating: 3
I would say the "flight to one dollar" nature of the App Store has soured many developers.


RE: Obsession
By Abrahmm on 4/8/2010 12:26:50 PM , Rating: 5
Yep, the way Apple stole the Linux package system, slapped a price tag and a dictator on it has really revolutionized the entire world.

$10,000 a year? Most developers don't even make half that! Actually, I agree with you. Apple should charge developers $10,000 a year. Then we can all get some popcorn and watch the largest developer exodus in the history of software as they all jump ship from the iPhad to the Android future.


RE: Obsession
By acase on 4/8/2010 12:46:02 PM , Rating: 3
ooo first time I've seen "iPhad". I like it!


RE: Obsession
By themaster08 on 4/8/2010 2:14:16 PM , Rating: 4
Finally managed to connect your iPad to your router then, reader1?


RE: Obsession
By alanore on 4/8/2010 10:26:18 AM , Rating: 5
I agree there are too many of the same thing, and too many are apps the have very little functionality.

Another problem with Apps is, the number of websites that are making apps just to view their content. I don't want to have 20 separate apps for viewing my favorite websites. I would prefer to have decent mobile versions of their websites and use a browser.


RE: Obsession
By reader1 on 4/8/10, Rating: -1
RE: Obsession
By Gungel on 4/8/2010 11:04:59 AM , Rating: 1
You're thought process is very much communistic. communism has failed and so will closed platforms like the app store. The only reason the Internet has become what it is today is because its open.


RE: Obsession
By reader1 on 4/8/10, Rating: -1
RE: Obsession
By steven975 on 4/8/2010 12:15:29 PM , Rating: 3
Quality thrives in an open environment. People are free to use what they want. There will be lots of junk, but the best will come to the top.

It does not thrive when one man has an egomaniacal desire to control said environment. This is how you get crippled devices, and how the best apps are not allowed into the marketplace.

Some like to write their own apps and use them on their own devices without getting someone's approval first.


RE: Obsession
By MadMan007 on 4/11/2010 5:21:03 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
There's no such thing as high-quality Web content.


You took the words out of my mouth, right as I was reading your post even!


RE: Obsession
By HighWing on 4/11/2010 12:00:55 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
The Wikipedia is a shining example of how openness fails. It's an open source of information that is synonymous with unreliability, which defeats the whole purpose.


Obviously you don't understand the point of an Encyclopedia, which is what Wikipedia is. The "point" of an encyclopedia is to give you just enough information to understand a certain subject, it is, and never was supposed to be the "only" source you use. Just like when writing any kind of paper, you never use just "one" source. Therefor the reliability of the article is a moot point as it is the "reader's" job to then verify the facts through the listed/other sources. At the very least it's meant to be the starting point for your research, never the end point. Even Wikipedia admits that much.

As far as the openness is concerned, there are many people out there who would consider Wikipedia a success based on the sheer number of articles it contains over any other encyclopedia out there. It is true things do get defaced/vandalized, but the "openness" of it has been proved a success as often times the changes are caught and changed within a reasonable about of time. And often it is much faster then any bug fix from apple I might add.


RE: Obsession
By Gungel on 4/8/2010 11:06:47 AM , Rating: 2
Your thought process is very much communistic. communism has failed and so will closed platforms like the app store. The only reason the Internet has become what it is today is because its open.


RE: Obsession
By Gungel on 4/8/2010 11:09:57 AM , Rating: 2
Sorry for the double post. I pressed Post Comment to quick.


RE: Obsession
By Camikazi on 4/8/2010 11:32:36 AM , Rating: 1
Wait, what? Web will grow bigger, lots of content and because of that search engines (which let you find certain info in LARGE amounts of info) have no future? Pretty sure the web getting larger will just make search engines more useful and not less.


RE: Obsession
By themaster08 on 4/11/2010 2:25:14 AM , Rating: 2
But by his own logic, the App store will grow bigger and also become even more of a mess. What are they going to do? Start removing apps that are similar to one another? That would just give devs even more reason to switch to another platform.

The App store will fold under its own weight.


RE: Obsession
By msheredy on 4/8/2010 11:19:35 AM , Rating: 2
Just give it time. I predict that both OSs will have near identical amounts of apps and of course near identical "redundancy" of apps as well. It's called a plateau.


RE: Obsession
By Anoxanmore on 4/8/2010 11:26:32 AM , Rating: 2
The only app I do want on Droid is going to be from Smule (Ocarina app).

When that one shows up or one like it, I will not want an iPhone for I can do everything and more on another with Droid, plus I can play the Legend of Zelda Theme no matter where I am and what I am doing, total awesome. :)


RE: Obsession
By steven975 on 4/8/2010 12:30:28 PM , Rating: 2
you can actually PLAY Legend of Zelda on a Droid, too.


RE: Obsession
By Anoxanmore on 4/8/2010 1:59:21 PM , Rating: 2
Oh I know, but that would just be an additional bonus to playing the theme music. :) <3


RE: Obsession
By akugami on 4/8/2010 11:31:32 AM , Rating: 4
Quantity vs. Quality.

Oh how ironic it is. The very same arguments against the Mac, that it lacked quantity is being used against Android.

The very same arguments for the Mac, that it had quality software that covered all the major bases, is being used for Android.

This is not a pro or anti Apple post. It's just an observation about how some of the arguments have come full circle. As for personal opinion, I've always felt that the Mac had enough software to cover pretty much what the average computer user needed. I think Android has hit this as well or pretty close to hitting it.


RE: Obsession
By inighthawki on 4/8/2010 11:59:38 AM , Rating: 5
There's a difference between quantity and redundancy. On the iphone platform, the apps are redundant, you have 5000 fart apps and 100 calculators, etc. On other platforms such as PC vs MAC, yes PC has a higher quantity, but due to its very nature, there is a larger variety of apps available.

The iphone by design has very limited functions which means by having more apps, you are likely to have more redundancy. On a mac, however, the limited quantity of apps is just a sheer limitation, as opposed to a quality over quantity argument.


RE: Obsession
By akugami on 4/8/2010 9:11:41 PM , Rating: 2
Your post sidesteps the issue because while what you say is true, there is still a much higher variety of apps on the iPhone than on Android currently. While there are limitations on the software for the iPhone, which sucks greatly, there is still a pretty wide variety of apps.

Keep in mind I'm not arguing in favor of a closed system. I actually think part of the Mac's failure was its closed nature.


RE: Obsession
By invidious on 4/8/2010 11:48:19 AM , Rating: 2
People have different needs.


RE: Obsession
By MScrip on 4/8/2010 4:35:19 PM , Rating: 1
quote:

There's too much obsession over quantity of apps instead of quality of apps...

Then maybe you should tell the developers to cool the fuck down! Google and Apple aren't making all these apps... regular people are.

The only reason the number of apps is reported is because that number keeps rising... rapidly.

Do you ever think we could go one month and not have a single app introduced?


RE: Obsession
By icanhascpu on 4/8/10, Rating: -1
By weskurtz0081 on 4/8/2010 12:10:17 PM , Rating: 2
At least, that's what some would lead you to believe. Who would have thought a platform that wasn't completely closed off like Apple could succeed!? Definitely not reader1!

Keep beating that drum buddy, and then please fade off into obsolescence when Android surpasses the iPhone.

quote:
One sign of health in the Android Market is the rising number of paid apps. Another perpetual criticism of the platform leveled by iPhone proponents is "all the apps are free". That's hardly true any more; today 40.4 percent of apps are paid




By steven975 on 4/8/2010 12:35:47 PM , Rating: 2
I've paid for Android apps. There's just less pieces missing that one doesn't need to buy as many to fill in all of the missing parts.

And, no I don't see Google closing Android. Much of the ads are in the free aps, which can't really be blocked as easily.

Also, it should be noted that since Android is Linux based, it attracts all of the people that like to write Open-Source software, or just generally write free software. IPhone never really attracted that crowd. A Quake2 and Quake3 port is a great example. Completely outside the Market, but it awesome and free if you own the PC game.


By weskurtz0081 on 4/8/2010 12:47:46 PM , Rating: 2
They aren't going to pay for anything? Sure they will, and I posted a link to an article below that proves they do. Maybe you ought to read it?


By weskurtz0081 on 4/8/2010 2:04:55 PM , Rating: 2
So? I thought we already established the number was higher for the App store, although, you have suggested that the Android market downloads that are paid are less than 2%, which would mean the App store is ~4% (according to YOUR numbers).

It's nice to see though that you are not disputing the numbers! Android paid downloads are on the rise, as well as developer interest in the market. Case closed.


By Lazarus Dark on 4/8/2010 10:57:09 PM , Rating: 2
This is why I'm getting an Android next month, my first smartphone. I was never even slightly interested in a smartphone until the Android platform. But with a Linux-based platform I know the Linux guys will be pushing out tons of free, quality open source apps.

Long live OSS.


Ok ..
By darkblade33 on 4/8/2010 9:36:50 PM , Rating: 2
I agree Droid is doing well..

but lets do a comparo.. droid has like 25K apps total ? As of today iPhone has 175k apps !

so people are saying why would you need more then 25k apps ?
well i know of iPhones 175k apps.. 50k of those are games alone! iPhones has double the games available then droid has total apps ! HAHA

I dont even have a iPhone or a Droid.. Ive got an old Blackjack II which still works great..




RE: Ok ..
By Zshazz on 4/9/2010 12:31:30 AM , Rating: 2
Correction: droid has like 40k apps total. And what's the scouter say about the number of apps released last month? IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAND!

Interestingly enough you could have read the article to gather this much information. :)

I have a Droid and I'm happy to see that we're getting many new apps. I've bought a few apps and I can tell you that the quality is definitely improving just as rapidly as the quantity.


By Chaser on 4/8/2010 11:27:56 AM , Rating: 2
Android (Google's) approach of being both phone carrier and model independent is superior. Not to mention Android's very open platform towards media.

Whereas iTunes leads the obedient and willing blind, Android's marketplace and open media handling is a breath of fresh air and far more suitable to anyone that has the I.Q. to operate a mobil phone.




Purple
By adiposity on 4/8/2010 4:30:33 PM , Rating: 2
Is it just me, or are both parts of the pie somewhat "purple"?

oh well...




Apple arrogance
By androticus on 4/11/2010 1:14:29 PM , Rating: 2
(Disclosure: I have an iPhone, love it, and have no plans to replace it.)

Apple has been acting very arrogantly, both towards developers and users. They recently eliminated all kinds of "adult" apps just because some religious right types complained. And now they've forbidden all kinds of app generators and middleware. They can do that kind of thing when they have huge market share but if/when Android phones overtake them and grab a big share then Apple may regret acting so arrogantly.




Android Phones
By Jameichat on 4/28/2010 6:54:07 PM , Rating: 1
Google is making good headway in the smartphone market. I like the new Nexus One and the growing app base- It is great you can buy a Nexus One and get service through Fuzion Mobile. They are autopay with no contracts and it is amazing having a top phone and no contracts or issues.




Quality is more important than quantity.
By reader1 on 4/8/10, Rating: -1
RE: Quality is more important than quantity.
By smackababy on 4/8/2010 10:05:11 AM , Rating: 4
That is exactly what Apple and MS should do... Raise the cost of entry that no upstart or even single person can afford to get an app out. That really will push innovation...

Seriously? I mean come on. You don't really believe the garbage you write do you? I am pretty sure you're trolling us hard.


By MozeeToby on 4/8/2010 10:47:08 AM , Rating: 2
It's an easily solved problem in any case, a simple rating system pushes bad apps out of site and brings good apps to the fore. Even Dailytech's comment boards manage it reasonably well, with the GP's comment being an excellent example.


By Gio6518 on 4/8/2010 10:07:00 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
There's no approval process for getting an app on Android Market. Anything submitted gets through. That's just going to lead to a flood of garbage


oh please grow up already apple is loaded with garbage apps the only true requirement to posting an app for iphone is what percentage jobs gets


RE: Quality is more important than quantity.
By bplewis24 on 4/8/2010 10:44:24 AM , Rating: 4
It's great watching you change and adapt to the current market trends. When Android's market was bleak, your argument was that it's app store couldn't compete because it didn't have enough apps. The dissenting argument was that quality is more important than quantity, and that most of the top-notch apps from Apple's store were already on Android, so the sheer volume didn't matter.

Then your battle cry was "they're all free!" You claimed that the Android market was not friendly to developers because they could not make any money there, so they would stick with Apple. Now it appears that devs do in fact like the Android market, and business is good there.

So, now we come full circle. You are now touting quality over quantity, despite quantity being the ONLY advantage the Apple app store has at the moment. And the irony is that you claim that many of the Android apps are going to be junk because "anything" submitted gets approved (you realize that is a good fundamental concept of capitalism, right? The good Apps are the ones that will flourish, and the bad ones will...get rated down). The irony being that some of the most popular apps on the Apple marketplace are complete pieces of junk (fart apps, anyone?).

What's next, Reader1? What's next?

Brandon


RE: Quality is more important than quantity.
By reader1 on 4/8/10, Rating: -1
By mrking on 4/8/2010 12:11:46 PM , Rating: 2
reader1 - I love your insightful comments so much I make sure to stop by at dailytech at least once a day of the offchance of catching one of your pearls.


By weskurtz0081 on 4/8/2010 12:22:17 PM , Rating: 3
I wonder, do you just pick the best possible numbers to support your case, post them, and then hope no one checks?

quote:
AdMob shows that 80 percent of Apple downloads are free compared to 20 percent paid, while 87 percent of Android downloads are free compared to 13 percent paid. Compare this to Distimo's numbers showing the percent of apps, and you can see an interesting scenario - the number of free apps is far less proportionate to its share of downloads.

http://www.clickz.com/3639833
http://metrics.admob.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/0...


By rocky12345 on 4/8/2010 7:26:00 PM , Rating: 1
OMG reader1 you sure like those links you keep posting lol. Dude if you like paying for everything so much go buy some apple apps already & stop bugging everyone. I myself like a selection of apps whether they are free or paid for apps I do not mind paying for what i use but I do mind that a company is so very close minded about everything it is either their way or the highway.

Well in this day in age that is not going to fly there are to many other companies out here are are more than willing to sell you something. As said by many others there is nothing wrong with an open platform look at Windows it is pretty much open & it stumps all over Apples Mac OS is every aspect that is good. Yes it is a big target for hackers but that is the price of success I guess Apple can only hope their OS ever gets that successful that people will actually go out of their way to hack it.


RE: Quality is more important than quantity.
By Gungel on 4/8/2010 11:00:12 AM , Rating: 3
Please leave it up to me to decide what app is good and what is garbage. I really don't need Apple nor Microsoft to decide for me.


By mrking on 4/8/2010 4:07:39 PM , Rating: 2
if in doubt, ask our friend reader1, he'll tell you if somethings good or not!


RE: Quality is more important than quantity.
By rocky12345 on 4/8/2010 7:17:43 PM , Rating: 2
Well put Those couple lines of words pretty much said it all +8


RE: Quality is more important than quantity.
By Gungel on 4/9/2010 8:39:13 AM , Rating: 2
Here is a quote from Steve Jobs at yesterdays iPhone OS4 presentation that says it all:

Q: Are there any plans for you to run unsigned applications, like on Android?
A: There is a porn store for Android to go to. You can download them, your kids can download them. That’s a place we don’t want to go. We’re not going to go there.

Why this self proclaimed Apple god thinks he has the right to censor his users is beyond me.


By MadMan007 on 4/11/2010 5:31:36 AM , Rating: 2
He said it very clearly - it's for the children! You know, all those spoiled ass rich brats with iPhones and their $100/month contracts. Of course, free porn is impossible to find on the internet otherwise so by keeping it off the App store Apple is keeping the children safe and moving us toward their beautifully bland and antiseptic vision of an all white and silver future!


By Iaiken on 4/8/2010 2:37:45 PM , Rating: 2
Reader... I've read enough of your posts to know that the question is not "are you spun in the head?", but rather "how spun are you?"

I have an iTouch and I've poked around the Apple app store and what you have predicted for Android is ALREADY A REALITY FOR APPLE.

Long lists of redundant applications that are simply direct rip-offs and clones of each other or existing web apps are abundant. What's more, Apple devs seem to love retarded linuxesque application names that have nothing to do with what the product actually does.

Then there are the stupidly absurd apps like "HelpMe!" that is just a speed dialer for 911... you know, the number you could have simply assigned to speed dial with the following utility?

http://www.apple.com/webapps/utilities/speeddialfo...

Yeah, so much for iPhone users not being:

- lazy
- pants on head retarded
- a waste of perfectly good carbon and water


By rocky12345 on 4/8/2010 7:13:40 PM , Rating: 1
Yea & Apples approval process works so well now don't it. Apples approach is that if a app has some of the same features as their core apps on the phone they get axed. This is a company not willing to compete with others & in this day & age very wrong. They try to tell their users what they should & should not run on their hardware & if that software does not meet Apples approval it gets axed & the user has to look for something else again this is showing that Apple is acting like a monopoly by trying to tell the user how they should use their hardware. I am sorry but when i pay big bucks or something you can pretty be assured I am not going to let a company like Apple tell me how to run that hardware. I mean if I chose to want to buy a pron app Apple should not have a say how i spend my private time but somehow they think they can & no I am not saying that is what my choice of software is just an example.

The openness of the Android market is what is going to attract more & more people to it & no it does not mean all the software is going to be garbage that is a farce & wishful thinking by an Apple fanboys.

All those Apps that Apple has right now yes sure it is a high number & yes people have to browse endlessly through mass amounts of software to find what they want that is the cost of having to many apps I guess whether it is Apples App store or anyone else that have a mountain of apps.

All of these companies just have to have a better way to make it so the end user can find what they need faster. Have top rated apps listed first maybe the top 40 for each class of app this way the user can see what others are buying.

How much harder can Apple make it for an app to get approved they already block anything they think will compete with their own software. But I am sure reader1 there is no way that you or others that are apple fanboys will ever see beyond Mr jobs backside sry if the truth hurts.


By astria on 4/13/2010 9:11:20 PM , Rating: 1
the beauty of Android Market Place is that, if you are unhappy with a paid app, you can request for a refund within 24hrs of download...

for the users, they get to decide what works for them... they are the one who approves what are high quality apps... not Google...

for the developers, they better make a great app to get paid...


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