OCT. 25, 2010 • Google’s Android developer team announced that the total number of apps available for Android handsets and tablet computers had surpassed the 100,000 after two years. The number of Apps available via Apple’s App Store is more than 300,000.
Impact: While Apple’s App store still dominates in size over the number of Android apps, the latter’s faster growth recently can be attributed to its open architecture and availability on a variety of carriers. The general price point of Android phones is considerably lower than the iPhone, even when factoring in subsidized 2-year contract prices of the iPhone. Combined with aggressive advertising from both carriers and hardware manufacturers, Android is clearly the main threat to Apple, even more so than the Blackberry. Earlier this year, Comscore indicated that while every other major smartphone manufacturer’s share had declined, Android was the only one to increase. This month Microsoft releases its Windows 7 smartphone behind an aggressive consumer campaign, though anticipate its lure will be limited. However, a major difference between Android and the Apple iOS is that iOS is on platforms outside of mobile phones, notably iPod Touch and iPad. This substantially increases the demographic appeal and reach of iOS application. Thus for most developers, Android still remains very much a secondary platform.
