Two studies on Android Market growth no comments
Of late the Android Market has been growing in number of apps much faster than the Apple App Store. A couple of recent studies appear to paint somewhat differing pictures of the near future outlook for that growth trend.
First is a report from research firm Distimo. This study finds that the Android Market already has more free apps than the App Store (134,342 to 121,845), but currently has only about a third as many paid apps. According to this report, if all app stores maintain their current growth rate the Android Market will achieve parity with the App Store (in number of apps) sometime in July, and will have more total apps than the Apple App Store by around August of this year. The App Store would then be in second place followed by the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.
Then there is the Appcelerator-IDC Q2 2011 Mobile Developer report, a survey of 2,700 app developers conducted jointly by Appcelerator and International Data Corporation. This survey, which was taken April 11-13, found that the Android Market is loosing its shine for many app developers, and that their interest is shifting back to the Apple App Store. Reasons given include disappointing sales of Honeycomb tablets and fragmentation of Android.
This report seems to be predicting a coming plateau in the growth rate of the Android Market.
The Appcelerator-IDC survey of app developer sentiment is more of a forward-looking indicator, whereas the Distimo report is measuring recent historical performance. Here’s hoping that rather than a plateau, the Android Market is just in for a pause before starting its next leg upward.
