Silicon Alley Insider has
posted an interesting chart that shows the total number of apps available across various mobile platforms. As you can see from the chart, Apple's iPhone leads the pack by a longshot with 170,000 apps according to
AppShopper.com. AppShopper typically lists more apps than Apple publicly states it has because AppShopper updates its numbers on a daily basis. As of today's count, AppShopper says Apple has approved 198,924 apps with 171,722 available to download. The discrepancy between the numbers accounts for apps that either the developers or Apple have removed from the App Store. Apple officially states that it currently has
150,000 apps.
A distant second after Apple's App Store is Google's Android Marketplace with 30,000 apps. RIM's Blackberry trails with only 5,000 apps, while Palm has a paltry 2,000. Windows Phone 7 Series Applications were
announce a few days ago with a limited number of developers signed on. Of course, these numbers don't take app quality into account at all (100,000 fart apps is still just a bunch of junk), but clearly in terms of available downloads, Apple has a huge lead.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
riley said 2:18PM on 3-21-2010
I would like to point out that android marketplace doesn't reject any apps, so all crap apps that apple filters out are in Google's count.
Google wants quantity, Apple wants quality.
btw Palm might be dead this week. Developers would be insane to look at that platform.
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cydeweyz said 8:45PM on 3-20-2010
So iMob 10 Respect points counts as an app, and you're going to tell me that's not crap????
Rob said 9:20PM on 3-20-2010
Yep, dozens of fart apps, zit popping apps, and similar ilk just scream out 'Quality'...
You were kidding, right?
Brad H. said 10:04PM on 3-20-2010
Yeah, right, apple wants quality?!? You've obviously never been in the App Store!!
And yes, the android marketplace does reject some apps, such as apps with malicious code.
Furthermore, I wonder how much the App Store's app count would shrink if they got rid of basic duplicates, free & paid versions of the same app...
Dan Woods said 11:01PM on 3-20-2010
@Rob,
OK, so we take out the Dozens of Fart Apps, Dozens of Zit Popping,… we'll just say 60k of Low-Brow Apps; we end up with…110k Apps versus the nearest competitor's 30k.
That's right, if twice as many Apps as what are in the Android MarketPlace were removed from the App Store because they were too low brow to be considered quality Apps, it's library would still be nearly 4x as big as the MarketPlace.
Dan Woods said 11:04PM on 3-20-2010
Riley,
WebOS Apps *should* be easily portable to any other platform which uses WebApps. That means any WebKit browser such as the iPhone, Android or Symbian Phone should run WebOS Apps just fine.
Google are developing ChromeOS purely to run Web-based Apps.
WebOS Plugin Apps, however…
David Warzyle said 8:36AM on 3-21-2010
I agree. Many of my friends have started developing for Android. It is easy and does not cost money.
Why is this a bad thing? Well there is no hurdle to jump over so they can kinda half ass their way into market place, throw out a bunch of apps and check which of the apps the users want. And it works, 100:s of dollars from crap apps! Why bother with user inconsistencies and design at all, we are programmers! But geeks could not be happier!
If you on the other hand decided for an iPhone, you have to buy a MacBook and a developer certificate. It is an investment that you do not make lightly so you might as well create a small startup company to get around the taxes on the computer and phone and now you really have to try hard to make your iPhone app sell enough to get that money back. And of course you have to learn a new language: Obj-C instead of Java in Android. Java is the first language a student will learn, because it is amongst the easiest to program in.
I'm just guessing on the iPhone part though, because none of my friends has actually tried it.
So what is the result? Well as I see it: a bunch of teens programming for the Android platform and none for the iPhone.
Izzy said 10:19AM on 3-21-2010
What I would like to see is the Google app store broken down into subcategories since some apps don't work on all Android devices. Unlike all of the other single standard phone OS's.
Aly said 8:25PM on 3-20-2010
What is interesting is that although Apple has by far the most apps it has shown approximately a tripling in numbers between June 2009 and March 2010. Android however has seen a six fold increase. This suggests it is growing faster than apple's app store which is most likely due to the relative infancy of Androids app market. Though if they kept that growth up, they would soon match apple.
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ciaran said 10:15PM on 3-20-2010
This is one of the cases where magnitude of growth is > % because we're talking # of apps.
Google didn't grow as much in magnitude (25k) as apple.
A percentage comparison is meaningless because we're not talking a TAM situation with 100% being a ceiling. The number of apps effectively grows without a cap (at present).
Average White Boy said 12:04AM on 3-21-2010
It would be difficult for Android to catch up to Apple because Apple has nearly all the mobile developers on board. The App Store is where the money is or can't you figure that out by now. There are far more downloaders for the App Store than Android Marketplace. Besides Apple is pulling in far more bucks with the App Store and that makes all the difference in the world as to where the developers are going to stay. The iPad is only gonna make the App Store grow bigger and faster.
You are also forgetting that Android will need far more apps in order to match all the various Android handsets with various screen sizes. It'll only get worse for Android as the OS fragmentation continues to worsen.
macserv said 12:59AM on 3-21-2010
It's true that Android's store has seen a 6x increase to Apple's 3x. But the Apple App Store has been around a lot longer, and when you factor that in, 3x growth is absolutely staggering. We'll see if Android's store can make the same claim after an equal length of time.
craig_16 said 6:17AM on 3-21-2010
@Macserv
I'd like to know where this misconception that the Apple App Store has been around a lot longer came from. The Android Market went live a little over three months after the Apple App Store, and the Android SDK preview was actually released 4 months BEFORE the iPhone SDK beta. They really shouldn't be this far behind.
Yoshi1080 said 9:19PM on 3-20-2010
Go Palm go! *pokes at it*
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Eric said 11:25PM on 3-20-2010
I'd like to see that. As a Pre user, I was impressed on the first day with App Catalog offerings - I found what I was looking for instantly. After two weeks, though, I'm starting to miss things.
Nothing major, and I haven't explored the non-Catalog offerings, but it's a noticable change from when I was using my iPod for all of my mobile needs.
Dan Woods said 1:08AM on 3-21-2010
2k Apps is still pretty respectable; That could cover many mainstream functions many people would use their Phones for.
The fact that it is negligible compared to The App Store's 170k Apps is what is really killing WebOS. If the Palm had been Progressive and developed the Prē sooner, WebOS might be occupying the niche currently held by Android.
Instead Palm decided to be conservative and maintain PalmOS and CobaltOS, until they decided to be Regressive and use Windows Mobile, until they faded into obscurity for the first time.
Apple did something similar with System 7 and 8, and were contemplating being Regressive and adopting Windows before Steve came back with NeXTStep and a Progressive attitude.
Rego said 11:39PM on 3-20-2010
"As you can see from the chart, Apple's iPhone leads the pack by a longshot with 170,000 apps according to AppShopper.com"
While your meaning is clear, from the context, "longshot" is not the English word that conveys your intended meaning.
long shot (longshot)
noun
a venture or guess that has only the slightest chance of succeeding or being accurate : it's a long shot, but well worth trying.
Go Apple!
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Dave Barnes said 11:52PM on 3-20-2010
I have a problem with the graph.
For RIM: 5,000 is "larger" than 5k.
Not in mathematical terms, but visually.
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macserv said 1:00AM on 3-21-2010
Yeah, it bugged me as well... for Palm it's "2K", but Blackberry has "5000". Not that it's anything surreptitious, it's just inconsistent.
Max said 3:05AM on 3-21-2010
170.000?... Woooowww!!! (fanboy style)
Lets count lite and full apps as one, lests remove all crap rss site-spesific readers and some other crap...
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