With the release of the new iPad from Apple, the app store is going to be more and more important to Apple for the growth of their mobile devices.
With the release of our first Android application, Benpaper, on the Android Market, I was drawn into comparing the 2 services.
As some of you will know, I'm an Android owner (G1) and Ben is on the iPhone 3GS so we have a pretty good idea the areas in which both operating systems outshine each other. The aspect I love about the Android OS is the ability to address bits of the hardware directly from the application you are writing. If you need the location you can grab it from the GPS, if you need the accelerometer you can address it directly. When you download an app from the market, the description of the application tells you which aspects of the phone the app is accessing.
This open device architecture coupled with massive competition in the hardware space with over 50 new handsets slated for 2010 is why I believe android phones and the market are going to expand massively this year.
I did some research about the numbers of apps being launched on each service in 2009 to see what the trends are and it's really quite interesting.
From the stats it looks like the the number of apps being released each month onto the Android market per month is rising steadily throughout 2009, whereas the numbers released per month onto the App Store, although significantly more, does vary from month to month. Clearly in December the number rises sharply but that is usual for a mature market as Christmas is a big sale point in the year.If this trend continues (ignoring the December stats) the Android Market would reach the same rate of release as the App Store by approximately mid 2011. However, with the release of Android 2.0 and 50 new handsets this year alone, I expect the takeup to be more exponential and less linear. Therefore I'm going to stick my neck out and say I think there will be a similar amount of new app released onto both services by December this year.Of course releasing apps is one thing, and quality and usage is another. I definately think Apple have the edge in terms of marketing but there's nothing new there. Take a look at the difference between the two store fronts.
At the moment there are some frustrations though as the Android Market is still seen as the poor cousin with most applications getting limited budget for Android and therefore suffering massively in functionality and sometimes look and feel.
If you look at the functionality differences between the iPhone and Android versions of the Foursquare app, there is quite a difference. Not only functionaly but also design wise. The Android design is using the standard menu elements available to all android users, whereas the iphone version is far more sculpted.
So I'm looking forward to the release of all these new handsets and versions of the OS. I'm also looking forward to more and better quality apps on the Android Market, but most of all I'm looking forward to May, which sees the end of my contract so I can actually get an upgrade!
