Android Market clears the 50,000 app mark, says AndroLib
By Chris Ziegler 
posted April 23rd 2010 7:31PM
posted April 23rd 2010 7:31PM
posted April 23rd 2010 7:31PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Would love to see Android take down Apple the way Windows took down Apple.
@semblance Windows never took down Apple, Windows has always been at the top.
@semblance The way Windows took down Apple? Im assuming you mean PCs, not Mobile. Abnd I think even that would be debatable today
@MoonWalkerCTE You must be a youngin'.
@semblance Yeah, and then you woke up.
@RidleyGriff What makes you think that?
@sonola777 We'll just ignore the 90s I guess
Alright I got my popcorn and lawnchairs out. Here we go..
@subzero1313
How's that even debatable? MS has 90% market share, Mac has 5% and everybody else is shareing the remainder.
@MoonWalkerCTE Because, anyone that isn't young would know that Windows DID take down Apple. Apple was once on top. I am a young one, and even I know that.
@semblance
GO ANDROID
@MoonWalkerCTE
Probably because Windows hardly had an operating system when Apple launched their first computer with a GUI in 1984. Windows never really started taking the home market until Windows 3.1. Even then their biggest breakthrough was with Windows 95.
@ErrorBorn When I said Windows I meant Microsoft.
Also Microsoft was actually making software for the Mac back then interesting enough. In fact the first version of Word actually launched on a Mac OS before it even launched in Windows.
You got to love it Open!
@DMang Let's not forget that it was also Microsoft that invested $150 million into Apple in 1997.
@n0ne
So let me get this straight...
From what you people are saying, Apple is better than Microsoft because they have their own popular products, but 6.37% market share, while Microsoft doesnt have popular products but 90.72% market share?
Wow..
@semblance
Number of apps isnt a good measure .. what I wanna see is the revenue. What's the total revenue? Apple's app store as i understand it has revenue in the billions.
@semblance
Wow! What did Apple ever do to you on a personal level? That much hate?!! Be wary of hating... it only burns you.
Lmfao, lol!!
@JS
Only thing about comparing income from apps is the fact that there are a lot of free apps on android using ad support. So by that math, I'd say more free apps are better for the consumer but wouldn't show when it comes to app revenue unless you take in account ad revenue also.
@DMang Did you not read my comment correctly? I said that Windows has always been on top therefore it has never had taken down anyone.
@semblance Got hate?
@subzero1313
Especially since Apple's a few weeks away from curb stomping Microsoft in Marketcap. Should be fun.
@semblance
I would actually like to see Android do the opposite and blown even more minds and by that I mean:
Less Apps and More Sold Builds
@MoonWalkerCTE the problem with your statement is that apple WAS once ontop of the PC market until MS nearly destroyed them.
@barkerja 150 mill is chump change in this industry.
@MoonWalkerCTE
The Apple II was a pretty hot product, release 1977.
The Mac was not, released 1984, way too expensive.
Windows 1 came out in 1985, and was a complete dog.
Windows 3.11 was released in December 31,1993 and was the real turning point for Windows.
In other words, Apple was kicking MS's butt until the mid 90's.
September 19, 1994 Apple sued MS for the look and feel of Windows.
Thanks to John Sculley, MS won the battle.
1997, Steve Jobs returns to the company, and begins to drastically alter the company's direction.
2010 (prediction) Apple will surpass MS in marketcap
@Wesscoast
"2010 (prediction) Apple will surpass MS in marketcap, "
If you look how PC and netbooks sells, I don't know how could MS be beaten this year. Windows 7 not included XP and Vista already double the install base of OS X and it didn't lose any steam at all.
PC market is rebounding
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2010/01/while-pc-market-rebounds-apple-slips-into-5th-place-in-us.ars
Android is starting to picking Apple shares, with such war going on, how will your prediction come true?
@1mc
You miss the point. Apple's phone business (booming) is very profitable whereas Google's Android is given away for free, in hopes of making money on advertising. So Apple is making money hand over fist not only on the devices, but also from the ATT deal where they get a couple hundred bucks on each phone.
The Mac, especially laptops, are rocking right now wherease the PC market relies on Netbooks, which don't make any money.
Basically MS obsesses about marketshare, Apple obsesses about profit. And that's why Apple is winning.
PS. The iPad, as big as that story was a few months back, was not factored into this quarters financials. So of course, that's another huge boost in EPS next quarter ;).
Also iAd is coming, which should piss Google off big time.
@ErrorBorn how many people bought the apple computer in 1984? was there even a home market in the 80s?
@semblance The amount of visceral hatred and disdain that the anti-Apple people have is actually kind of sad. You may know your history but I doubt that you know much about computer science. Let us talk solid points here people, not opinion.
1. Why do I need to have C:\ and D:\ and E:\ ? In UNIX we have one root directory
2. Windows has come a long way but technically it used to be a POS in the past with legacy 16 bit code and what not. Apple had preemptive multi-tasking way before Windows.
3. Shell programming in Windows is a nightmare. If you have written any shell scripts then you know what I am talking about. I can use the Terminal in OS X to write fancy shell scripts. Batch files are a joke.
4. No other operating system or language uses backslash as a path separator. It is an escape character. Any programmer here knows that.
5. By the way, go to your favorite company Google and see how many of their software engineers use Macs..... you will be very surprised!
My own 2 cents as a long time programmer. I would love to hear from other CS graduates. Not from anyone who thinks he knows a lot about gadgets because he can tinker with stuff.
If you know very little, you like Apple. If you know a little more, but think you know a lot, you like windows. If you know a whole lot more ... you like Apple. And if you really know ... you like Linux (I have no beef with that)
@semblance
Most of those apps suck and there aren't any real games. Just because Android gains marketshare doesn't mean it's better.
@uHorndog who owns the mobile market?? i just read 75% of Japan's smart phones are iPhones... 75%!!! and future is in mobile devices, not some 30 lb desktop you can't carry around... MS of course owns the OS market due to their dominance in business market.. but who owns those small number professional artists who only uses Mac?? I used to work in KBS in Korea ( broadcasting company owned by Korea) and only thing i ever saw in that place was Macs...Stupid Video Editing/Recording.... It was painful... I will never buy Macs (Macbooks) but I do own iPod Touch and iPad.. and I love em both.. You can't be good @ both can you?? Have you seen MS Kin?? what a joke, just keep making x boxes ms lol
@JojoMojo i don't consider myself an oldtimer (i'm 29) but I do remember when i used to go to middle school @ Montclair, NJ all comps in school were Macs... and this was what?? 94?? 95?? and after that famous Win95 rest is history
"“the way to make money in this business is by setting de facto standards.” Bill Gates...
Windows and Microsoft Office remain the biggest de facto standards of all but they haven't set anything since then ( other than listening to Steve's famous "one more thing"). Meanwhile, Apple came out with ipod, ipod minis, Iphone, and iPad. They clearly saw the future as we know they own the mobile market. Apple clearly set the de facto standards since 1997 as Apple's share price shows. (When Steve Jobs assumed the CEO position at Apple on July 9, 1997 Apple shares cost $3.42 and the company had a market cap of around $3 billion. This week Apple shares hit $266 with a market cap of $241 billion — 80 times larger than it was 13 years ago. Microsoft shares, in contrast, went from $17.67 to $31 in the same time frame — not even a doubling despite more than $80 billion in share buy-backs by the company.) so as an investor's point of view, Apple is far more profitable company than MS. No competition lol... and looking at my old man's face every time Apple makes a splash, It's a truth. ( Owns little bit of Apple share he bought back in 80's and still brags about it)
@owen66
We had a Mac back in the 80's. And I have to say, switching to DOS was a step backwards.
@MoonWalkerCTE Its clear that you're a youngling. You dont seem to know that apple and their computers were around before microsoft and windows conquered the IT world.
@n0ne
Yes, it's good for developers. But I don't think most customers really care. What they care is about quality and hype. If an app gets attention people will download anyway.
ITT
Butthurt old Mactards opening up old wounds
/trollface
@semblance Windows never took down Apple but the way OS X market share is rising it seems like it will be taking windows down soon.
@JS
thats not a good measure for the people, you want free apps, not to be paying $15 an app (ipad) or $3 for ipone/touch
@owen66 I had an apple ii+ in 1981 and a Mac in 1985...
@jkwakopo You miss one big thing, It is debatable on the PC front which one is more profitable, imo i'd say windows. But the you mention the iPod, iPhone etc as a profitable part of apple yet... Microsoft has the Xbox. A console that on it's second version has pretty much managed to take over globally. A console which brings in profit from Hardware, Software and Xbox Live. Not to mention the fact that Microsoft Game Studios now own some of the most valuable companies in the Gaming World, Rare, Lionhead, Mistwalker etc etc
@pretol way to hijack a thread fools
@semblance Not gonna happen IMO.Google is tunring into the MS of the 90s early 2000
@semblance As they say, android is about the quality, while apple is only about the quantity. Reaction-- http://bit.ly/android-apps-exagerated-apps
@Wesscoast "Also iAd is coming, which should piss Google off big time."
Considering that Google filed for a patent on location-based advertising, I'd say they welcome iAd - if only for the legal insulation.
@N900 You need more than one lawn chair??
@JS So now we shift the goal posts. When Apple started their app store, it took some time to see things mature before people felt comfortable buying a lot of applications. The point of this article is that the exponential growth that Apple experienced with the App Store is now coming to the Android Market. Android is now reaching a critical mass and is becoming a mature platform. It's not something that Apple fans will be able to denigrate anymore just because it's not Apple.
@JojoMojo Actually, we had a Google employee come visit my campus to give a lecture on data storage and data loss prevention, and he told us that at Google, most employees use Goobuntu, a Google modified version of Ubuntu.
Also, you say, "1. Why do I need to have C:\ and D:\ and E:\ ? In UNIX we have one root directory"
Yeah, you do have one root directory for your files, but you also have to mount any devices you plug in. For example, if I plug in my flash drive, Ubuntu automatically mounts it using the mount command. In some versions of Linux, you have to manually mount them.
Instead of C:\ or E:\, you get /mnt/sda1, /mnt/sda2/, /mnt/sdb1.
There are obvious differences between these two methods, but they both accomplish the same basic task.
By the way, I am also a software developer, and I cannot stand working with Cocoa / Objective-C in Mac. If I want object oriented C, I will write code in C++ (which is what I do, considering I am a C++ developer).
@barkerja
They bought stocks which they then sold back to Apple. At the time, Apple actually had a couple BILLION in cash, so Microsoft didn't actually "save" anything.