Why Android market increase so slow?

[starlipse]

Latest news,Android Market contains in excess of 10,000 applications, 35.5% of paid apps, 64.5% of free apps,See below figure. Although without doubt 10,000 applications is a considerable catalogue, 148apps.biz (http://148apps.biz/app-store-metrics/?mpage=appcount) is reporting that 76,085 applications are currently available in the Apple App Store.

Why android market increase so slow? please write your comments, we, starlipse (http://www.starlipse.com/), as a professional android outsourcing service provider,we have talked with our consumers, most of them think the cost cannot be recovered. do you think so?

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[maek_it_happen]

when android has more market share and the os gets more common and in more phone i think thats when the development will speed up, also android does have a good chance since its os is already spreading to diff phone makers

[Iceberg]

When you have a whole generation of over privileged 13 year old girls using parents credit cards to buy music from Itunes so they can carry there Dashboard Confessional's and Secondhand Serenade's around with them all day in there Ipod it's not hard to advert them to buy an mobile application for a cell phone especially when it looks nice, and has some polish to it.

When you have a dirty market that's ugly and not for sure and kind of confusing, how do you expect anything to sell? Especially when end users have no control on banning terrible devs. On top of poor hardware and touch response.

[hetaldp]

Rather then Going for Quantity of Applications i will definitely look for Quality and Diversity within Applications

So many Apps in I phone is for Themes Soundboard etc etc same with Android so if you Think only for Software not themes actual number reduces Drastically.

When iPhone was Introduced they Release SDK After almost 1 year and then Application Started Shipping but MOst of them have Repeating Functionality.

Just give Android some more time

[RangerFish]

Hi,

This is my first post here, but just thought I'd weigh in on this...

Personally I think maek_it_happen's prediction will happen next year, probably we will see the first signs of this in the spring. I blame a lack of awareness of Android compared to the iPhone, but I also think that some people are just so fed up of seeing iPhones everywhere that they'll look for interesting alternatives - and Android is there to snap up these customers.

Low uptake on a new OS is nothing new, because customers will go where the applications are, and application developers will go where the customers are. This is largely how Windows maintains its market share.

I think there are a few things that Google could do - get multitouch pinch zooming on maps (not there because Apple claim to have a patent, but I understand that it's a shakey one since they didn't actually invent it), a decent racing game with an accelerometer, and so on. These are important because they're the things that Apple are pushing as selling points.

The fact that you can pinch zoom on websites and photos but not on maps may seem trivial in the cold light of day, but it becomes more important when you're down the pub comparing the tricks your HTC Hero can do vs what your mate's iPhone can do (particularly if your friend is the type who keeps saying "you should have got an iPhone").

Also, I don't think Google is making the most of the advantage of its OS being more open. We still only have one app store, and while you can tick a box to allow installations from other sources, it's an all or nothing approach. It would be better to see a couple of middle ground options such as allowing installations from a number of trusted sources, prompting for untrusted sources, blocking only applications from known bad sources, and watching for suspicious behaviour.

[bmcclure937]

The Android Marketplace will grow considerably as the Android marketshare increases. With all of the upcoming Android devices, I expect the marketplace to get a jump start. There are already a lot of solid applications available, from what I can tell... and, over time, more and more quality apps will be added.

The one thing I like about the Android Marketplace over the iPhone App Store is the "openness". Apple has proven to be Nazis about the applications allowed in their App Store and their tight censorship is inappropriate, in my opinion. They can do what they want with their App Store and deny applications, but in some cases it has gone too far.

Also, comparing the Android Marketplace to the App Store is a common thing to do, but it might not be the most appropriate comparison. The iPhone made its debut in January 2007 and Android (along with the Open Handset Alliance) was announced in November of the same year. The first Android device to hit the marketplace was the HTC Dream (TMobile G1), which happened in October 2008... so Android is technically 1 yr old ;) Android is relatively new to the smartphone world and got a slower start than Apple's iPhone. Apple provides an easy SDK and interface for developers to use when creating iPhone apps... so it is a fairly easy process. Of course, the apps then have to be approved for the App Store, but the development part is still fairly easy. I honestly do not know how this compares to Android development, I know there is some sort of SDK but have not used it.

I think the most important thing though is something another member mentioned. It is about quality, not quantity. On top of that, I feel that Android offers a multitude of free (and obviously open-source) applications for the platform and Apple offers most of their apps as paid applications (and closed source).

Give it some time. Android will gain more and more momentum.