With Google Andriod taking the 1st place for smartphones the next thing that comes to mind is about its apps or more specifically how is its app marketplace performing? Consider this:
The Android Market is growing at nearly three times the rate of Apple’s app store in the US and it is set to contain more apps than its rival by 2012, according to Lookout Mobile Security’s App Genome Project.
The study claims that Android’s app store offering has grown 127% since August, compared to Apple’s 44% growth. However, the growth rate is relative, with Android jumping from 38,729 apps in August to 87,785 this month, while Apple added 105,857 apps during the same period to reach 348,894. The results are leading some commentators to speculate that Apple’s app store is reaching saturation point and will soon be surpassed by Android.
Few things to note here, the report talks about app offers not revenue. Although one can argue, when you have loads of app coming in down the pipeline, revenue will automatically follow given the steady rise of andriod based smartphones. No classification of apps is also made, as in paid or free.
Finally, the growth we are talking about is relative.Given the size of market and market maturity, the growth Andriod apps are having now is bound to be more than that of Apple’s. Having a growth figure which is three times more than your competitor sure is something.
The report also indicates that Apple still receives the lion’s share of developers with numbers increasing nearly 50% during the last six months to reach 72,682 from 49,014 in August. In contrast, Android only added approximately 4,000 more developers during the same period bringing its tally to 14,111, approximately a fifth of Apple’s head count. Android’s surprisingly small increase conflicts with a recent IDC report that claimed that 87% of app developers say they are “very interested” in creating Android smartphone apps with a further 74% seeking to develop apps for forthcoming Android tablets.
The report claims that Android’s app store is maturing as its percentage of paid apps increased from 22.4% to 34.1%. However, Apple’s chargeable app count decreased approximately four percentage points to 66.2%. Among free apps, Google’s AdMob is the dominant ad platform on both Apple and Android devices. However, the prevalence of iAd on Apple devices increased sharply, gaining 10 percentage points in six months to sit within 2% of AdMob. Lookout predicts iAd will become the number one ad platform in the coming weeks. The positive iAd stats are at odds with recent reports that Apple’s ad platform is struggling to fill its inventory due in part to high fees.
Lookout’s results follow recent predictions by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster that Google could generate more than USD1bn in Android-related ad revenue in 2012. Android’s US market share increase more than seven percentage points in Q4 2010 to end the year less than three percentage points behind market leader Research In Motion (RIM) and many expect the OS to become the most popular in the US this year.
In addition to both these app markets, it will be interesting to see what has the Nokia-Microsoft alliance to offer.


February 16th, 2011
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