Gaining the apper hand
App store analytics company Distimo has published its latest findings about the app marketplace. According to the study, there are more free apps in the Android market that the Apple App Store.
While the Android Market currently offers about 134,342 free apps, Apple offers just 121,845 free apps. In fact, the number of paid apps in the Android market is just one third of the paid apps available in Apple's store.
As of now, the Apple App Store remains largest; however, Distimo notes that Apple will face severe competition from other app stores very soon. It predicts that Google Android market will be the largest, five months from now.
Interestingly, Distimo forecasts also suggest that BlackBerry App World will double in size and actually surpass Nokia's Ovi Store by end of May 2011. Windows Phone market will be larger than Nokia Ovi Store and BlackBerry App World.
Distimo observes that the Apple iPad app market actually grew by 12 percent last month to 75,755 apps, of which only 34,120 are designed for iPad specifically. Many of the top publishers on the iPad already publish cross-platform. About 58 percent of the 50 most popular publishers have already developed applications for non-Apple platforms. Further, Distimo noted that most popular Apple App Store for iPad publishers in March 2011 that also publish outside the Apple ecosystem on other platforms too.
The report also lists out top iPad publishers, highest ranked free and paid apps across all stores, with specific details for individual Apple products.
