These are the days when Smartphones are in vogue – you will see every 2nd professional will be carrying a Smartphone. One of the important and most attractive aspect of Smartphone’s – you are able extend the functionality of the phone using the native 3rd party apps.
Currently we have 6 main Mobile Operating Systems that mobile phones run on – Apple, Google Android, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Nokia Symbian and Blackberry. Every OS has its own Marketplace which allows its users to down and install applications. Some are Free and some are paid.
Distimo is a Dutch analytics company that tracks nothing but these app stores. They recently gave a presentation at Mobile World Congress titled “Mobile Application Stores – State Of Play” which highlighted the state of the six largest device manufacturer stores (Apple App Store, BlackBerry App World, Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace for Mobile).
Here are some of the interesting findings of Distimo:
Apple has the largest app Market with close to 160k applications and Android is second largest with around 20k applications
Even though Android is the youngest Market place, it is relatively growing faster with more than 15% application being added last month.
Android Market place has the largest share of free apps whereas Nokia OVI store has maximum number of paid Mobile apps.
Microsoft and Blackberry have more than double average price of apps as compared to other app providers, while all others are in similar range of around $3 !
Have a look at this presentation by Distimo, which gives more details about various app stores !
I am sure over next Few months we will see Android Market growing at much faster pace, primarily because many new Android based models are getting launched. I wouldnt be surprised if within a years time Android gives iphone run for its money :)
Whats your take?