Android Market Reaches 20,000 Apps, App Store Shaking in Fear?

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

The iPhone’s App Store should start to feel the strength of the Android platform soon, as the Android Market has just reached the 20,000 apps mark. AndroLib claims that the online store has doubled its size in the last five months, in spite of the fact that Google doesn’t disclose statistics regarding its service.

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The statistics attached to this article will give you an idea on how things work with Android Market and prove that the platform is truly evolving. November was a bomb for new Android apps in the English language Android Market, also meaning a big gain month over month, thanks to Motorola Droid and its huge sales.

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Right now, games stand for 15% of all apps in the Android Market, a bit like the App Store’s statistics, although the situation is different. As far as app distribution is concerned, 30% of the software has been downloaded less than 50 times and very few apps have been downloaded more than 250,000 times, showing the need for “hit apps” in the Android Market.

Things will get interesting in 2010, specially with the new Nexus One phone and the avalanche of Android smartphones coming. How long till it beats the App Store’s popularity?

[via mashable]



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Windows Marketplace for Mobile Gets Announced Officially

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

After announcing Windows Mobile 6.5 at Mobile World Congress 2009, Steve Ballmer talked about Microsoft’s My Phone and an on-device app marketplace for WM 6.5, called Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

This service will allow users to download apps on their handsets and it’ll also connect developers, while allowing them to publish and distribute apps.

windows_marketplace_for_mobile

It seems that Windows Marketplace for Mobile was designed to work exclusively with Windows Mobile 6.5 and it’ll have a special placement on the operating system’s Start menu. Right now, global marketplace distribution works in 30 countries and the payment options are very flexible (credit card, mobile operator payments).

Developers will be able to sign up, publish and manage their apps in the marketplace through a single website and the policies applied to Microsoft’s service will be very transparent. What’s really nice is that Windows Marketplace for Mobile finally connects developers with the users searching for their apps, that makes for quite an efficient marketing tool.

[via blogs.msdn.com]



Posted in Microsoft, Mobile Software | View Comments