Today marks the first time we see the number "100,000" associated with the Android Market. Or, wait, no we don't - remember this, this, this, and about 5 million other posts? Let me try again.
Today marks the first time Android actually crossed the 100,000 apps mark, a whole month early from my earlier September projection, if we go by the unofficial app count from AndroLib.com:
Don't be confused by the discrepancies in the official count and AndroLib - as we explained before, they count many markets (not just the official Android Market) and don't account for unpublished apps. In an email exchange with us, AndroLib explained:
It is rarely mentioned but Androlib covers over 10 markets and therefore also lists applications unfound in other sites. Just try to find this random russian app on the other sites
Honestly, we cannot guarantee we have everything but we think we are doing a pretty good job at it. Our number is high as some applications might have been taken out of the market. We count everything that has ever been added to the market. Upates do not count towards the overall number obviously.
On the rating front, nothing is added manually. All the ratings are the phone ratings.
However, AndroLib does make the Active application statistics available too, and its 83,000 app count seems a lot more accurate.
Of course, because most submitted applications paint this painful picture, the number of usable, quality apps is much-much(-much) smaller.
Here is what AndroidLib had to say on this day:
When Androlib launched in June 2009, barely 5,000 applications and games had been submitted to the Android Market. This number quickly grew overtime exponentially. By the end of 2009, it would cross 20,000. Today, we are happy to announce this number surpassed 100,000. As we receive many inquiries about the number and how we compute it, here are a few specifics you might be interested in:
- The Androlib directory covers multiple markets to cater to the needs of many international users. To that extent we do list applications and games that are not necessarily available in the US market. The following french application is a good example : SFR TV.The overall number we give each day on the statistics page is a cross-market number, which implies that it covers more than just the US market. We might also be missing a few, as we do not cover all markets at this point.
- Today, an Android publisher can upload an application easily within minutes. But he also can unpublish it very fuickly. You can take down an application very easily. As we see the number of applications crosses the 100,000 mark, we are confident in saying that at least 100,000 applications have been submitted to the Android market since its creation
- For those of you who are interested in the number of active android applications, we encourage you to look at the Free/Paid download diagram. Today we evaluate that there are 83,000 active applications in the Android market.
The growth in the number of applications posted on the Android market is a testament of how excited developers from around the world are about the Android platform. As more and more users buy Android phones, users want to see an increase in the number of quality applications. To this extent, we worked really hard on giving you more search option on Androlib to help you find the right apps for you.
The Androlib Team
Sources: AndroLib, AndroLib blog