

Android To Surpass Apple’s App Store In Size By August - ssclafani
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/05/android-to-surpass-apples-app-store-in-size-in-august-2011-report-exclusive/

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nsfmc
Arguably, the most valuable portion of the article:

    
    
        Evidently, there’s always the question whether this matters at
        all. After all, the bulk of applications that are available for
        both platforms don’t see much traction anyway, so how relevant 
        it is whether there are 100,000 apps or 200,000 apps that are 
        rarely, if ever, downloaded by anyone?

~~~
daniel_solano
Quite true; what good are 100,000 choices if none of them solve my problem?

A second problem: 50 apps look like they might solve my problem, but how do I
know which suits me the best?

~~~
joebadmo
Yes, and you would think that Google of all companies would be uniquely suited
to solving the second problem, but it hasn't, inexplicably, at least not yet.

------
tomelders
It feels like a useless metric to me. Would knowing the number of websites on
the web tell you anything useful about the web? Beyond a certain point it's
just a lot of noise and I personally think both app stores would be better
with a lot less apps.

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guscost
Meanwhile, true low-latency audio is still not possible on Android. Anyone
developing precisely-timed musical tools and games (like myself) will be
forced to stick with iOS, and there still isn't a single decent synthesizer
for my Droid.

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ry0ohki
I'm honestly surprised it took this long. Considering anyone can submit "Hello
World" to the Android store in 1 minute by getting a $25 dev account, and the
Apple approval process is an exercise in bureaucracy....

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peteretep
I feel like I've seen a lot of metrics about how Android /will/ be the
platform of choice, and little that suggests the vast majority of consumers
buy Android phones for anything other than price reasons.

~~~
jnhnum1
There was a study a while back that said that Android is now the most desired
platform: [http://www.androidcentral.com/nielsen-android-americas-
most-...](http://www.androidcentral.com/nielsen-android-americas-most-wanted-
platform)

I don't believe that in that study "desired" was supposed to be inclusive of
price.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
I believe "desired" in that report means intends to purchase in the next 12
months. So devices that are priced to sell would have an advantage. Whether
that's an unfair advantage is a bit of a philosophical conundrum, particularly
as people might "desire" something more if it's less attainable.

It reminds me of the TED talk by Benjamin Wallace where he sought out
ridiculously expensive steak, champagne, jeans etc. to see if they were worth
the price:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_wallace_on_the_price_of_ha...](http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_wallace_on_the_price_of_happiness.html)

~~~
huxley
The other problem with the desirability standard is that iOS and Android in
the survey are pretty much even (30% and 31%).

[http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/u-s-
smartp...](http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/u-s-smartphone-
market-whos-the-most-wanted/)

If you look at their other graphs, however, they show that "recent acquirers"
have favoured Android (50% bought an Android versus 25% who bought an iPhone).

I particularly like how they handwave the discrepancy between desirability and
reported purchases by saying "Those dynamics are already translating into
sales."

If one assumes their numbers are accurate, they point to other factors besides
"desirability" behind the purchase of a smartphone.

~~~
cube13
>If one assumes their numbers are accurate, they point to other factors
besides "desirability" behind the purchase of a smartphone.

This survey was(presumably) from October/November 2010 to March/April 2011.
There was a major Android release, and new phones during that time. The iPhone
4 was released in June 2010, so it's no surprise that sales were lower at that
time, especially considering the early upgrade discounts AT&T gave out at
launch. While the Verizon iPhone release certainly is in those numbers, I'm
pretty sure the holiday push outpaced it by quite a bit.

The real question is whether or not that kind of growth is sustainable. I
personally don't believe that it is, and that we're just seeing Android get
it's initial chunk of the market, after which it will settle down to more
reasonable growth.

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stringbot
In other news, Wal-Mart stocks a lot more clothes than Armani Exchange.

~~~
sudont
Haven't we gone past that analogy yet? Apple isn't always high-end, Android
isn't always utilitarian for the masses.

If anything, it's two competing bazaars. Apple's just been able to attract
more artists to sell in theirs.

~~~
ddagradi
It's more than that though. Apple attracts more customers that are more
willing to spend money on their platform. In doing so, they attract more high
quality applications and developers that can make a living off of that
ecosystem. Android is doing that as well, but more slowly, in no small part
due to the difficulty people often face with the Android Marketplace.

