Google Android Market Tops 400,000 Applications
Google Android Market gave itself a nice new year's present last weekend. The total number of active applications worldwide in the Android Market reached the 400,000 milestone. Android Market has topped the 200K and 300K available apps milestones …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Android Market's app count has roughly doubled every year since launch: Google corrected its own tally down to just 16,000 apps at the end of 2009, then crossed the 200,000 mark in December 2010. The 400,000 figure reported by Distimo lands almost exactly one year later, keeping that doubling cadence intact.
What makes the number meaningful rather than cosmetic is the installed base behind it: Google counted 3 billion cumulative installs by April 2011 and 200 million active Android devices by November 2011. Catalog size and device footprint are now reinforcing each other, which is the dynamic Apple's App Store has enjoyed since 2008.
First-order effects
- Google can now market the Android Market to developers as catalog-equivalent to Apple's App Store on raw app counts, removing the 'there's no app for that' objection from handset makers' sales pitches.
- Developers face a more crowded discovery problem: with the catalog doubling annually, paid downloads and featured placement become harder to win without marketing spend.
Second-order effects
- Handset OEMs competing against the iPhone gain a stronger counterargument at retail, pressuring carriers and rivals like Nokia and RIM whose stores remain far smaller.
- App-discovery and curation layers — editorial picks, recommendation engines, carrier storefronts — become a battleground as raw search over 400,000 titles degrades for users.
Third-order effects
- If the doubling cadence holds, app-count milestones stop being differentiators and platform competition shifts to monetization per developer — payout terms, in-app billing, and install quality — where Apple still leads.
- A two-store world with comparable catalogs entrenches iOS and Android as the default mobile duopoly, squeezing third platforms' developer economics further.
The trend: Mobile app ecosystems are racing toward catalog parity between iOS and Android, shifting competitive weight from app availability toward developer monetization and device scale.