Google’s Android Marketplace reached an impressive milestone over the weekend by passing the half-million mark for apps available, and continuing to close the gap on Apple’s App Store.
But there’s a catch: the half-million figure is for Apps which have been published, which also includes apps that have then subsequently been removed because they’re out of date or contravene the Google user agreement.
The actual number of apps that are available to download is in actual fact 319,000. Apple currently has 450,000 apps available across its line of iDevices.
According to the report from UK research firm Research2Guidance, Google’s marketplace leads the way when it comes to having apps removed with more than 37% of apps being removed for various reasons. By comparison, Apple’s own deactivation rate was just 24% of apps in their App Store. Microsoft has just pulled just 13% from the Windows Phone Marketplace.
The report said that Apple’s more rigorous submission standards prevent developers from multiple submissions of low-quality apps, whereas publishers in the Android Market have been guilty of too many trials, demos and many with malware content.
Another interesting fact from Research2guidance’s report is the claim that Android app developers are “significantly more productive” than Apple developers, with the average Android app developer churning out six applications to the average Apple developer’s four.
Incidents of malware and subsequent removals is increasing with the expansion of the Google Android Marketplace. In September a record 42,000 instances of malware were recorded.
At the same time, the flood of new apps has pushed up the proportion of free titles during the month to 34% from 26%. Nearly half of newly added content falls into four categories: games, entertainment, personalization, and music and audio.
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