The iPhone still dominates the app sector and with over 250,000 apps available for iPhone users, one of the biggest challenges for the other smart phone operating systems (OS) is to create/translate more apps. Google’s Android OS is the clear second runner in the app race and last week AndroLib.com announced downloads of Android apps had reached the one billion mark. To date, [well] over five billion iPhone and iPod apps have been downloaded.
However, Android’s catchup pace is quickening. 160,000 Android-powered devices are being activated each day worldwide. There are nearly 100,000 Android apps available from the Android Market. 61% of the apps are free and 39% paid. The vast majority of downloads relate to free apps, as is the case with Apple apps.
While there is only one iPhone (the latest being the controversial iPhone 4) there are over 60 different phone models currently running the Android OS. Android owns approximately 15% of the US smart phone market while Apple’s share slipped a percentage point in the last three months to stand at 25.4%. The iPhone currently dominates the Irish smart phone market with an estimated 85% of app downloads originating from iTunes.
The launch of the Android ‘App Inventor’ (above), a free software tool that allows anyone to create their own Android apps is a clever move by Google. While a flood of ‘useless’ apps will be created by bedroom nerds, many professional publishers and marketers will use the tool to create ‘useful’ content apps that will be made available through the Android Market (the added benefit being they don’t have to pay the larger fees commanded by Apple app developers).
While the ‘app race’ remains an amusing side show to the smart phone evolutionary project it will soon matter little in the overall battle to dominate the sector. Processing speed and battery life will matter more in the long run.

You may also like: