Android Market to Surpass Apple App Store in August
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Posted May 5, 2011 at 10:20am by iClarified
Android Market is expected to overtake Apple's App Store in size by August 2011, according to research2guidance.
The company expects Android Market to reach 425,000 apps by next August. In April, Android added 28,000 new apps; whereas, iOS only added 11,000.
Android Market's high growth rate does not necessarily mean more revenues for developers.
On the contrary, the success of an app store is negatively correlated to the success of an average developer. All analysis on the early months of an app store including the Android Market shows that average download numbers decrease dramatically after the first months or even weeks after the launch of the store. The long tail gets longer and longer while the top 5% gets richer and richer.
Well, they do have quality apps, but the quality apps Android has are also available in iOS. On the other hand, like you said, there are quality apps in iOS not yet available for Android, so yeah, you made a good point.
Be this as it may...
What whoever made this analysis forgot to mention something...
70% - 80% of the apps added to the Android store are apps that already exist in the Apple store which doesn't say developers rather develop for Android, they are just adjusting their programs so they can me cross-platform.
In the future there will be no more apps fro iOS to adjust so they can also work in Android, developers will create apps for both OS instead. This will result in a drastic reduction in new monthly apps for Android while Apple will keep their number. Worst case scenario for Apple is that Android reaches the same amount of monthly apps in a future where all companies have released their iOS software to Android as well.
Bottom line is, Android will NEVER overcome apple in total available apps.
Actually, by your logic (which btw, you offer no proof of who is developing what first), then the Android marketplace will have an equal number of apps as the App Store contains, not less. But, I would even argue against this. Regardless of which OS is smoother or more user-friendly, the Android marketplace offers developers more free reign in function. For example, there is a slew of Android apps that make your phone into a WiFi hotspot, which will never be ported and sold in Apple App Store.
And there are tons of apps to manage the iTunes Library which will never be ported to the Android. My logic doesn't say that Android will have the same amount of apps than iOS, simply because not all the apps will be imported to the Android. The point i was trying to make was to simply make people understand where that 28000 number comes from. You are right, i do not have any strong evidence to backup my theory, but I do have an android phone and an iPad (which makes me a sympathizer of both OS), I browse both stores every day with their new release, and I can tell you most of the releases you see in the Android store are apps that already exist in the iOS. Of course there are apps that are released only for one OS and not both, but these cases happen more in the Apple store than the Android store.
In other words, yes, Android number is about twice as much as Apple, but it won't be like that forever, and to make an assumption that Android will overcome Apple is also something with no strong evidence and personally I do not think it is likely to happen
You do remember that one of Apple's arguments was that it had more Apps? Now that it seems like it's going to be overtaken by Android this argument is stupid lol? More competition = better for consumers
That's what radio stations do: they "help" us pretend that there are only a dozen songs worth listening to.
I do not think you really want what you are asking for. Which is pretty much what happens anyway?