Let me first start by a disclaimer. I do not own an Android phone, and hence have no real experience with Android Apps. But I have friends who swear by their Android phones and the App marketplace for Android. I guess Android being open-sourced, has a big developer community around it. Over 250,000 Android Apps are available for users, but things are not as rosy as they seem.
According to a survey by Nielsen, only a handful of Android Apps are actually used and the rest are just making up the numbers.
There are 250,000 Android Apps, but the top 10 are used 43% of the time. The top 50 Android Apps are used for over 60% of the time by users.
This means an incredible 0.02 % of Android Apps are actually used while the rest just are making up numbers.
Why is this scary for Android App Developers?
If you are an Android App developer and your app is not ranked in the top 50, it means you are competing with so many apps for such a small part of the user pie for Android.
Figures like these, could actually demoralise the app developer community. I have not come across a similar survey done for iPhone or iPad Apps, so no way to know if these trends are Android specific or generic trends with every platform.
Not sure but with the acquisition of Motorola, Google might be able to push forward better Android features with hardware support and that might have a trickle down effect on the Apps market too.
What are your views on so few Apps, hogging such a large chunk of time spent on Android? Does it show that Android is stagnant? Do drop in your comments.
One Comment
Android came in 2008.Now its market share is 46%.It Rocks.