Android has reached the milestone of 10 billion application downloads, with a reported growth rate of one billion downloads per month.
Announced on the Android Developers blog, Eric Chu from the Android Developer Ecosystem says: “We can't wait to see where this accelerating growth takes us in 2012.”
To celebrate the 10 billion mark, Chu says for the next 10 days there will be a set of apps available every day for 10 cents (USD). The first set of celebratory apps are: Asphalt 6 HD, Color & Draw for Kids, Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro, Fieldrunners HD, Great Little War Game, Minecraft, Paper Camera, Sketchbook Mobile, Soundhound Infinity and Swiftkey X.
The Android Market has an exponential growth trajectory, as it reached its first billion downloads in 20 months, three billion in another eight months and 4.5 billion in another two.
The strong growth rate is attributed to the rapidly increasing number of Android devices being activated each day globally.
The most recent statistics from Apple showed its App Store had 18 billion downloads in total as of the beginning of October. Apple also said at the time that it was seeing one billion monthly downloads, which would mean it is now standing at a total of roughly 20 billion downloads.
Android vs Apple
In a report published by Ovum recently, analyst Nick Dillion said the long-term outlook for app stores is positive, with customers expected to continue to use apps and add new features to their phones.
A report published in September by Yankee Group analyst, Carl Howe, noted that Android developers make much less money from paid apps than iPhone developers do.
“Recent data from a survey of 75 developers suggests that rampant piracy of Android apps may be the primary culprit,” said Howe.
“While better anti-piracy mechanisms from Google may help, Android developers should consider adopting business models beyond direct app sales.
“They need to foster some law and order or developers will flee to other platforms and Android will lose customers.”
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