App Numbers
Google stopped putting the “pages indexed” on its front page many years ago because it realized a key principle: the value is in the results, not the quantity.
The Android Market is definitely behind — it is missing some nice applications. But not many! All the apps that I used to have on my iPhone are now available on my Android phone. Thus, Apple’s App Store has zero “advantage” for me. How many other people are like me? Or conversely, how many people want and use all of those 100k applications?
-Greg Stein via Gruber
There are quite a bit of the major apps available on the iPhone are on the Android Market place, but it’s shocking how different there are. Things like NPR’s livestreaming of stations or the look and polish of other apps are missing from Android.
The issue if you start digging around in the market is that it seems a lot of the apps in Google’s/Verizon’s app number are soundboards. I was unnerved when I started digging around after picking up my Droid the sheer number of useless apps. Sure big name providers are putting apps on Android, but I don’t think you’ll ever have the number of indie/independent developers that you have on the iPhone. Android and the variations of resolutions, phones makes it a headache to develop for the platform. If I was a developer (which I’m not) it seems the iPhone has a far greater cost/benefit margin, something Android probably will never equal.
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