Android Market has more than 80,000 apps, Android's Rubin says

By Jerry Hildenbrand
last updated

Andy Rubin, Google's Vice President of engineering -- Android development head honcho and the man behind both Android and Danger -- was quoted in the press release announcing the T-Mobile G2 that the Android Market now has over 80,000 applications -- up 10,000 from the last we heard on July 15.

“One of the advantages of an open platform is the opportunity for developers to create rich mobile experiences and seamlessly get those experiences into the hands of consumers,” said Andy Rubin, vice president, engineering, Google. “From new services, such as Voice Actions, to mobile applications, developer-led Android innovation is flourishing. On Android Market alone, the number of applications available to consumers has grown from just 50 applications two years ago to more than 80,000 applications today.”

Of course there is still no way of telling just how many are themes, keyboard skins, icon packs unauthorized soundboards or "Sexy Lady No. 357" apps.  Like all App Markets, you'll have spam.  But the growth rate is telling, and it pretty much mirrors everything else we hear about Android and it's ever increasing market share.  

Jerry Hildenbrand
Jerry Hildenbrand
Senior Editor — Google Ecosystem

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.

12 Comments
  • Ummmmm didn't we cross 100,000 a couple months ago according to AndroLib? . . . then again back then google did say 70K. Not sure what they're counting from not counting
  • They were wrong. 70K was the correct figure back then, so it's safe to say 80K is feasible now. I still think some filtering needs to be done, though. Or at least give us the option to filter out the crap so we don't have to wade through it to get to the good stuff.
  • Yeah... if Google isn't going to kill the crapware on there, at least let us use some basic Boolean logic to filter our search results.
    And if Google wants to go the extra mile, maybe have someone go through the store and apply age ratings (or at least Safe For Children/Safe For Work/Not Safe For Work tags) to all the apps and let us filter by those, too.
  • I think its great seeing how it has alot of quality apps, the app store might have more apps due to the iPhone being out for 3 years and has gave devs a good head start with the mobile apps. But i think once devs start seeing how great the android market is, also how android phones are starting to make a huge name for itself as an os, they will start porting apps and making new ones.
  • the app store is only 3 months older than the android market (app store was opened in 2.0 which was released in july 2008 and Android market was opened in October 2008).
  • I think Angry Birds is huge step for android! it's not just another app. it has sold 6.5 million copies in apple's app store so it's one of the first big ports from ios to android and hopefully marks the exodus to the land flowing with milk and honey called Android :) pocket god and fieldrunners is what I'm waiting for next!
  • You could have fooled me. Coming from someone who has an evo4g and an iphone3gs I get super bored with the androids market place. Not even 15 percent of the stuff on my iPhone is on my android. God help me I can't find any decent games and I refused to download packman or angry birds. I downloaded nova the halo type first person shooter on my evo, but i had to get it from the gameloft website the market didn't even have it. Android has been cool to have as an alternative to the iPhone, but i am super underwelmed by the market. Android needs to snag the developers making games and apps for the iPhone. I want to play spiderman ,ironman, need for speed, madden, grand theft auto, splinter cell, chaos rings, metal gear solid, street fighter, prince of Persia, just to name a few. They can keep angry birds.
  • I agree 100%. I'm a musician, and I'm constantly amazed by the cool music apps — multitrack recording, Indian tabla & shruti, creative synths, flexible metronomes, so much more — that my friends with iPhones keep showing off. Meanwhile I struggled to find a metronome that could keep even time on my brand new Vibrant. The utter lack of quality control on the Android Market is a bad thing, in my opinion. 80,000 apps don't count for anything if most of them are spam/garbage & keep me from finding the decent stuff. Bad for me, and bad for the developers who are trying to make good apps (& make some money at it). The other problem is the Market's return policy, which is a disincentive to developers' work. On iPhone, if you develop a $1 app which folks will buy on a whim (ahem, fart.app) and then realize they don't need anymore, well, you made that $1 (or whatever cut they get). On Android, folks will buy the $1 fart app, and then return it once the joke's over, so the developer gets nothing. Many of the most talented devs are going to develop for the platform that will make them money. I'll probably buy an ipod touch just to get access to these apps, since I'm now locked into a two-year T-Mobile contract...
  • They really need to stop making these claims with numbers showing how many are not really apps but widgets, themes or even adult (porn) access apps. Seems half the stuff I come across is sexy/hot ladies theme stuff.
  • Crapware is present in all application markets/stores: iPhone, WebOS, and Android alike. I don't mind it so much as long as I can filter things. The problem with Android is that we have so little control over filtering apps based on *combinations* of price, ratings, update date, size, category, type, etc.
  • True, crapware is everywhere, but much more so in Android. Sorry, but just do a comparison.
  • great, now if they could only get some apps that are worth something, or some cool ones like in the app store, that would be awesome.