Android rockets past 100,000 mobile apps

26 Oct 2010

Google’s Android developer team has revealed there are now more than 100,000 applications available in the Android Marketplace. However, it has some distance to go to catch up with Apple’s Apps Store, which has close to 300,000 apps.

After less than two years, Android phones now account for less than 20pc of all smartphones in the world and in recent weeks Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that manufacturers with the Android OS have been reporting 200,000 activations per day.

Android’s developer team revealed the milestone of 100,000 apps on store via a simple tweet on Twitter.

Google recently expanded the Android Marketplace to 20 additional countries.

Android OS is gaining pace

Google’s Android platform is rapidly gaining pace in the US and is showing significant growth compared with the Apple iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry and competing platforms, like Windows and Palm.

According to ComScore, Google’s Android platform grew 6.6pc between May and August, compared with -0.2pc for Apple, -2.4pc for Microsoft, -0.2pc for Palm and -4.1pc for RIM.

The report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall, with 23.6pc marketshare, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with a 37.6pc market share.

Around 55.7 million people in the US owned smartphones during the three months ending in August, up 14pc from the May period.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com