Google downsizes AndroLib's Android Market app count by a few grand
By Chris Ziegler 
posted December 16th 2009 9:09PM
posted December 16th 2009 9:09PM
A stout 20,000 apps in the Android Market, eh? Not so much, according to none other than Google itself -- which, with all due respect to original counter AndroLib -- has a little more street cred here, especially when they're deflating the numbers rather than inflating them. A spokesperson for the company told us this afternoon that "there are currently more than 16,000 free and paid apps in Android Market" without specifying paid-to-free breakdown or differences among regional Markets, so we don't much basis for figuring out where Google's number comes from; we'd count it ourselves, but we've... uh, we've got dinner plans this evening. So until someone can conclusively prove otherwise, we're going to say that the Market has yet to crack the 20K mark in any region where the Market operates -- not to say you can't find a fair share of goodies among the 16,000 that are out there.
Time to take back that beer I bought my G1..
iFist bumps around Engadget HQ.
at least google makes sure their numbers are somewhat accurate *coughAPPLEcough*
Pretty obvious, AndroLib doesn't remove old inactive apps from their database. So while there may be 20,000+ total, there are apparantly 16,000~ish active.
@Celeras
Exactly. I have several of my "dead" apps still listed by them, but they are no longer in the market.
How do you explain the 20000 apps I have installed on my Droid?
Ctrl + C
@EGOvoruhk
Copy+Paste doesn't count as an app.
@ECH
rooting?
@ECH
.apk files.. you can install them over USB directly with the Android SDK, or put them on the SD card and let the phone install them, or download them from the web directly on your phone and then install them that way.
I've done all three.
@nelagster
Sorry was trying to be amusing. 16000…20000…who cares? You don't install them all at once, so longs as there are good apps that fufill peoples needs the total number of apps is only good for headlines and fanboys
@ECH the top 100 apps are the only ones that matter…. and thats being very generous. how far can tech innovation go? we are at the apex now. we dont need another app or website for anything. we have enough to work with. the app race is futile. It's always the quality not the quantity. Another point of view about the issue: http://bit.ly/android-apps-exagerated-apps
and thats not even counting all the applications on other markets besides googles! Nor the preloaded applications that aren't available on a market, like Motoblur and Sense.
I couldn't care less about the actual quantity as long as there are a fair number of quality apps, and from my experience thus far... There Certainly Are!
@DaHarder
Absolutely :D
@ethana2
Sure, I am pleasantly surprised about the quality of the Apps after the first three days playing with my Milestone. moreover I´m baffled by the the small sizes most of the apps have. (for example Complete Google Sky is just 63Kb in size... really amazing)
@DaHarder Exactly. Thats why the 100k app retort makes me laugh. Oh... And according to Luke Wilson, all of AT&T's smartphones have 100k apps available for them.
Why are people so big on the number?
(same for iPhone)
I get Apple/Google pushing that number since more total app, it allows for more good app...but I look for a device which has the apps I want, not one which has the most app
I agree that the number doesn't matter.
I am pretty agnostic on the debate but iPhone fans are using 100,000 to say their phone is better. What happens when the Android Market breaks that, something that is bound to happen eventually? Will that mean that the Android platform is better? Nope. Just like it doesn't mean the iPhone platform is better now.
@GabrielB
Many of these iPhone fans that are yelling about those 100000+ apps are OS X fans as well but in the discussions Mac vs PC, when the subject of number of programs come up, they always argue that the number of programs (or games) does not matter, they only need one program to edit their movies ect...
@(Unverified)
Have you got anything to back that up with or are you just flaming for the sake of it?
personally i dont care how many they have available. they still have quite a lot of momentum behind the platform, which is enough for me to question my 3GS subscription.
when my ATT subscription ends, im sure there will be a reasonable alternative, im just hoping its cheaper too.
"not to say you can't find a fair share of goodies among the 16,000 that are out there. "
Really. How many fart apps do you need?
OK. Let me rephrase that— How many fart apps do most people need?
@yrag
There are less than 50 fart apps on the Android market. Last time I checked the apple store there were many times this number available for the iPhone.
Now to answer your question: Zero (as I´m perfectly capable of producing farts myself and they smell much better then those apps ! )
Obviously the app count itself isn't that important but if you look at the types of iPhone apps out there I think you see more variety, more competition, more innovation, and definitely a lot more quality games than any other SmartPhone platform. For the basics I'd say the Android market is pretty good at this point. The only major issue I see with the Android market is the overall buggy/unstsable nature of many apps. Generally if I have problems I go back and read the reviews and see a bunch of other people having the same problems and often they are using the same handset. That's a major issue Google has to address. The other emerging problem seems to be 2.x exclusive apps while the vast majority of Android handsets are still running 1.x So far there are only a few but they're kind of high profile apples (Google Nav, Goggles) so it's really disappointing to see the platform already fragmenting so early.
@(Unverified)
Of the 60 apps I installed so far there is only 1 that had problems with my 2.0 device (minor layout issues still usable). Anyway you will see it will become less of an issue when Android matures, remember Android 1.0 is only about a year old.
I cannot think of 1,000 useful apps on a smartphone
(granted you have a feature rich web browser)
So who cares 16,000, 20,000 or 1,000,000 it's all the same...
you just get much junk to dilute the useful apps into a maze of crapware.