Android.... FREE To Move Ahead !!!

When Google released its search engine back in the 90s, it was in the face of fierce competition from established competitors such as Yahoo and AltaVista. When Gmail was launched by Google, it was once again stacked up against strong odds. When Google released its web-browser “Chrome”, doubts were once again raised due to strong competitors. Well, the current situation clearly specifies that Google has the tendency to overcome immense odds and create highly desirable services. Plainly put, Google is very good at what it does. 

Along the same lines, a few years back, Google launched its mobile OS called Android. Going up in the market against the dominance of Symbian and iOS, Google as usual carved a way to make its mark in this category as well. As things stand, Google’s Android is the most popular Smartphone OS in the world. Catering to the “App Mania” that Apple popularized with its App Store, Google had launched its own variant of the service called the Android Marketplace. Similar to the App Store in such regard, the Marketplace allowed the download and installation of third-party applications onto Android running Smartphones.  The difference was in that while Apple strictly monitored what Applications it would allow to be served through the App store, Google encouraged creativity and new ideas. Google’s strategy included encouraging more and more developers to make Apps by making the process easier and appealing. While some developers chose to charge a download fee for their applications, a lot of them made their product available free of cost. 

Since I’ve already made the claim that I tend to believe that Google knows what it’s doing, I would support it with yet another fact: Google’s strategy with the Marketplace worked and the number of Apps available started to grow at an alarming rate. Android’s marketplace quickly reached the rank of No. 2 in terms of the number of apps available. As things stand, Apple’s App Store serves up the highest number of Apps, this is partly due to the fact that it has also been around for a longer period of time. It is however estimated that the number of Apps available in the Marketplace will surpass those of the App store within the coming 6 months.

A remarkable feat that Google was able to achieve with the Marketplace however is, that it surpassed the Apple App Store in a category where it matters most. As of April, the number of FREE APPS available in the Android Marketplace exceeds the number of free apps available in the App Store. The latest figures provided by an analytics firm “DISTIMO” state that free apps in the Marketplace have surpassed 135,000 while the App Store has about 125,000 free apps available. 

The tech culture in Pakistan dictates that more users are attracted towards free stuff on the internet, as compared to services that you would have to pay for. The same logic applied when it came to downloading apps for your Smartphone regardless of whether it ran iOS, Android or Symbian. In that regard, it can be assumed that the consumer market of Pakistan will slowly start diverting towards more and more Android running Smartphones. With more and more new and appealing Android based Smartphones being released by manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung and Motorola the market is now flooded with worthy iPhone competitors. Plus the free apps on the marketplace give the consumers another very good reason. 

There is one thing that is noteworthy however for the users in Pakistan. The fact that cracked applications are easily available and downloadable in Pakistan, a lot of users are able to get their hands on many of the paid Apps of the Apple App Store for free. In that regard, the choice for the consumer becomes larger with the App Store. But if you look strictly at the official stats, the legally downloadable free app variety is larger with the Android Marketplace. Also if my assumption is correct, considering the rate at which the Android Marketplace and the Android market in general is growing, it is possible that soon enough the number of free apps in the Android marketplace exceeds the total number of apps in the Apple App Store. Although that is only a speculation at this time, it does seem probable. Considering the pace at which these markets are growing, we will soon find out.