Android Market now has 100,000 apps, passes 1 billion download mark (update: Google says 70K)

Well, it may not come as a huge surprise considering all the steam Android‘s picked up over the past few years, but it’s a landmark nonetheless: according to AndroLib’s data, the Market now has 100,000 apps available for download. It’s also interesting to note that it took just under three months to get from 50,000 to the 100,000 mark. An even more impressive number, however, is the fact that over one billion applications have been downloaded. While it’s not clear if this number includes app updates or not, the number is massive either way, and they’re growing pretty steeply each month. AndroLib’s data also notes that over 14,000 applications became available during the month of June, and over 10,000 have appeared already in July. Hit up the source links for more stats, and a chance to see the numbers update in real time.

[Thanks, Eggo]

Update: By Google’s official count, they’ve only just passed 70,000; this isn’t the first time AndroLib and Google have had different numbers, so we’re figuring the discrepancy might be thanks to the international Markets. More on this as we get it.

Android Market now has 100,000 apps, passes 1 billion download mark (update: Google says 70K) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceInformation Week  | Email this | Comments

Apple and HTC lead charge as smartphone market looks set to grow and grow

A recent survey of 4,028 US consumers by ChangeWave has thrown up a number of illuminating statistics, which you might consider as predictable as they are informative. The chief takeaway is that people are keen on buying smartphones like never before, with 16% of respondents saying that they’ll be taking the plunge within the next 90 days, which marks the biggest increase in the survey’s history. Secondly, and crucially for vendor loyalists, Apple and HTC seem to be the biggest beneficiaries (or are they the stimulants?) of this interest, with both improving their share by over 50 percent between March and June of this year. RIM and Motorola have taken a tumble in that same timespan, while Palm has sadly failed to register even a single percentage point. We can definitely see the Droid X and BlackBerry 6 remedying things for the big boys, but Palm’s route out of ignominy seems a little less straightforward. You’ll find a chart of customer satisfaction — dominated by Apple in imperious fashion — after the break, and the full breakdown at the source link.

Continue reading Apple and HTC lead charge as smartphone market looks set to grow and grow

Apple and HTC lead charge as smartphone market looks set to grow and grow originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 05:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  sourceChangeWave Research  | Email this | Comments

iOS has a bigger dev army than Android, but will cross-platform apps rule the day?

We oftentimes hear raw numbers of apps bandied about in mobile OS comparisons, but we rarely get any idea of just how many developers are behind the scenes working for each platform. This is the void of knowledge filled by AppStore HQ today, who have gone to their dev directory — claimed to be a complete listing of all 55,000+ coders whose work is currently available for consumption in the Apple App Store or Android Market — and stacked them into neat piles of Apple, Google and Gapple programmers. It’s immediately apparent that single-platform development is the norm (with Apple holding the predictable edge), but AppStore HQ also provides a list of some of the most well known (and well funded) apps doing the cross-platform dance, and suggests that a movement is afoot toward making software available for both sets of users. Then again, the BNET article below points out the difficulties faced by smaller outfits, who might struggle to find the resources required to port their content over and maintain the skills required to be multi-platform, resulting in them sticking to one environment, irrespective of what allures others might throw their way. Give them both a read, we say.

iOS has a bigger dev army than Android, but will cross-platform apps rule the day? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink VentureBeat  |  sourceAppStore HQ  | Email this | Comments

Chrome overtakes Safari for number three browser spot in the US sez StatCounter

StatCounter‘s issued a press release today which reports that Google’s Chrome browser has overtaken Safari for third place in the United States on a weekly basis for the first time ever. Chrome nabbed the spot with an 8.97 percent share, following behind Internet Explorer with 52 percent and Firefox with 28.5 percent. Safari ranked fourth according to their stats with 8.88 percent. Globally Chrome has been in third place for some time, but this is the first time it’s surpassed Safari in the United States. The statistics were compiled using data for the week of June 21st to June 27th. Full pr is below.

Continue reading Chrome overtakes Safari for number three browser spot in the US sez StatCounter

Chrome overtakes Safari for number three browser spot in the US sez StatCounter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple sells 1.7 million iPhone 4s through Saturday, June 26

There you have it. 600,000 pre-orders have turned into 1.7 million iPhone 4 sales through this Saturday. The Sunday transactions haven’t even been tallied up yet, but Steve and company already have another reason to look smug. That total eclipses the 3GS’ already phenomenal 1 million units sold over a weekend, and stands pretty much head and shoulders above any other launch the mobile world has yet seen.

Continue reading Apple sells 1.7 million iPhone 4s through Saturday, June 26

Apple sells 1.7 million iPhone 4s through Saturday, June 26 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How-to: figure out the best value iPhone 4 contracts in the UK

Choices, choices. Do you get the 16GB or 32GB iPhone 4? The black one now or the white one a little later? We can’t tell you which variant of Apple’s next phone will hold its value best over the coming months, but we can try to clear up a bit of the fogginess surrounding price plans on offer from UK networks. Orange and O2 are the first to drop handset pricing and full contract details, but they haven’t made it easy for the discerning buyer, with each carrier offering more than a dozen options. Vodafone, T-Mobile, Three, and even Tesco Mobile are set to follow suit in the coming days and weeks, but we thought we’d get the ball rolling with the pair we have now.

P.S. — And just as we publish this, Voda has gone official with its tariffs. We’ve now broken them down into a more digestible format as well. Just for you.

Continue reading How-to: figure out the best value iPhone 4 contracts in the UK

How-to: figure out the best value iPhone 4 contracts in the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint fires employee who leaked weak EVO 4G sales numbers

You know the backstory by now: Sprint boasted that the EVO 4G was its fastest selling phone ever a couple of days after hitting the American market, before abruptly correcting itself and admitting that the EVO’s sales were in fact in line with those achieved by the Pre last summer. What you, and we, didn’t know till now, however, is that Sprint’s self-correction was sparked off by an employee with a curious mind and posting privileges over on the xda-developers forum. On June 6, according to MobileCrunch, this unnamed hero of truthiness browsed Sprint’s internal inventory system and nailed down a figure of 65,500 sold units from Sprint’s own stores — a stat far south from what Sprint would announce a day later. That number ultimately found its way onto the message board, and though it obviously shouldn’t be taken as authoritative (or exhaustive), it was enough to get Sprint to hit the auto-correct button and part ways with the activist member of staff. Harsh.

[Thanks, Carol]

Sprint fires employee who leaked weak EVO 4G sales numbers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceMobileCrunch  | Email this | Comments

‘iPhone vs Android’ report finds Apple has three times Google’s market share

It’s oftentimes easy for us to get swept up in Android mania and forget that Google’s mobile platform is still in its infancy. Then we get cold hard numbers like these — showing iPhone OS owning 28 percent of the US smartphone market and closing in on RIM’s leading 35 percent — and we face up to the realization that Android handsets still account for less than one in every ten smartphones owned by Americans today. In spite of collecting 28 percent of all consumer smartphone purchases in the first quarter of 2010 (according to NPD), Google’s OS was only able to climb up a couple of percentage points in terms of total market share, showing just how long a road lies ahead of its world-conquering plans. Guess that now explains why Apple’s response to the earlier numbers was so nonchalant.

Other intriguing figures include a high rate of loyalty among iPhone OS and Android users, with 80 percent of the former and 70 percent of the latter expressing a preference for the same OS in their next phone — both rather shaming Microsoft and RIM’s numbers, which were a mediocre 34 and 47 percent, respectively. Funnily enough, despite its inflammatory title, this report finds Android and iPhone users are more similar to each other than anyone else — an uncomfortable fact for both parties to deal with, we’re sure. The source link contains some more demographic comparisons, so why not go check them out and drop some sage analysis for us in the comments?

‘iPhone vs Android’ report finds Apple has three times Google’s market share originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CNET  |  sourceNielsen  | Email this | Comments

Android 2.1 becomes most used version, just in time to be obviated by Froyo

Rejoice, oh Android lovers. Thy OS of choice has finally graduated to the point where its latest variant is also the most used — a statistic that is likely to last for only a day given Google’s intent to reveal Android 2.2, or Froyo, at its I/O conference tomorrow. For the first time since El Goog’s been keeping these platform version stats, 2.1 has risen above 1.5, the previous incumbent, having grown from 32.4 percent on May 3 (chart after the break) to 37.2 percent on May 17. This rapid ascension can only be expected to accelerate with more devices getting their Eclair permissions slips, and let’s not forget that Google will be trying its hardest with 2.2 to make upgrades easier for phone makers to implement. Onwards and upwards we go.

[Thanks, Chris D]

Continue reading Android 2.1 becomes most used version, just in time to be obviated by Froyo

Android 2.1 becomes most used version, just in time to be obviated by Froyo originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 May 2010 06:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Police  |  sourceAndroid Developers  | Email this | Comments

Windows 7, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu 10.04 meet up for an OpenGL benchmarking session

So these three operating systems walk into a bar one night … alright, we’ll behave. With all the Steamy conversation about gaming on non-Windows desktop platforms going on, we thought you might care to peek at a little OpenGL performance comparison review. As the chief cross-platform API, it’s the only way we’re going to be seeing the latest games running natively on Mac OS and Linux, but how will that experience compare to the market leader? As it turned out, Windows maintains superiority in this field, with frame rates that were habitually above those on the latest Ubuntu and well ahead of what you might get on Mac OS 10.6.3. It’s still early days — after all, Steam’s non-DirectX cupboard is pretty bare right now — but at this point in time, OpenGL gaming is a crown that Microsoft retains with relative ease. Hit the source for all the line graph evidence, and let’s hope things improve for the rest of us in rapid fashion.

Windows 7, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu 10.04 meet up for an OpenGL benchmarking session originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 04:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcePhoronix  | Email this | Comments