5 months ago Android announced that the had 10 000 apps. Now AndroidLib declares that they have reached 20 000 apps on the Android Market.These numbers are of course exciting as it would mean that Android has reached the level of Windows Mobile and passed OSs such as Symbian or BlackBerry. And in a very short space of time.

Of those apps about 60% are free apps.

Android Market

It is all a numbers game really…  Such huge numbers are really in themselves not necessarily a good thing. Searching and sifting through such a large amount of apps is not great for users. Like on iTunes and maybe even worse Android Market is difficult to search on… users then really have a harder time finding what they want with such a swamp of apps.

Does this mean that I don’t think Android is a success.. or that Apple’s plethora of apps isn’t great. Not necessarily but it seems that we need to sort through the hype of the numbers game and see who of the OSs is really going to push usage for the widest number of people. And who is really going to make money for the software developers behind these apps. So that the eco system really thrives and has a durable model that will continue to grow not necessarily in terms of numbers of apps but in terms of numbers of users and in revenue.

This being said it does seem to me that Android is here to stay and has progressed quite well. It is a market that I believe all of us with a vested industry will be watching closely in 2010.

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