Google announced that its Android Market mobile applications storefront now boasts roughly 30,000 apps–just three months earlier, the store offered 16,000 apps. MobileCrunch reported the official Google total after data from analytics provider AndroLib.com calculated the present Android Market app inventory at close to 35,000. Google declined to break down the percentage of premium Android applications and free apps, but according to AndroLib, the split is about 39 percent paid and 61 percent free.

Android application development surged late last year in the wake of news Verizon Wireless would introduce its first Android smartphone, the Motorola Droid, with Android project starts increasing 94 percent between September and October according to mobile in-application analytics provider Flurry.

Motorola is hard at work on the Droid for what it hopes would be the device to take on Apple’s iPhone. If specs are something to go on, it certainly impresses with a 800 Mhz ARM Cortex processor running on Android 2.0, a 5MP camera with a built in neon flash, a great capacitive display measuring 3.7 inches and the world’s thinnest QWERTY keypad.

Measuring 60.00 x 115.80 x 13.70 mm, it’s just slightly thicker than the iPhone 3GS but at least you could change the batteries on the Driod. Supported media formats include: MPEG-4, H263, H264, WMV; AMR-NB/WB, MP3, PCM / WAV, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA (something iPhone refuses to support).

The crypic Da-Vinci like countdown timer on the Driod homepage got the Internet working on the release date – Pharanoid.com broke the code to reveal October 28th as the release date.