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Android Device Dashboard

Research · 2 comments

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A Google spokesperson confirmed for eWEEK that there are 16,000 Android free and paid apps, not 20,000 as others previously reported. (iTunes App store is around 120k now with over 130k apps having been "seen").

A few more data points re. Android:

  • There are 5 Android instantiations of varying distribution through the first two weeks of December: 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0 and the fresh 2.0.1. It seems Google is prepared to see that number go much higher. You can see the distribution of platform versions in a pie chart here:

http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html

  • If a developer chooses only the most popular platform version, he gets to target about 54% of the installed base.
  • Motorola's Droid ships with only 256 MB available for app storage. Google Android does not support installation of apps to SD cards, so developers face a very real limit. Many of the most popular iPhone apps (games) easily exceed 100 MB, so not very many quality apps would fit on Droid (and some won't fit at all: Magellan RoadMate app ($59.99) alone weighs in at 1.36GB). That's why Droid only offers users three measly panels for displaying apps; users probably won't even be able to fill up two before they run out of storage space.

Droid comes with a built-in turn-by-turn app Google's Maps Navigation likely because no other nav app would come close to fitting into the Droid's limited 256MB app storage space.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Google-Android-Device-Dashboard-Highlights-Fragmentation-804428/?kc=EWKNLITA12222009STR4

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2 comments

  1. Lee Penick ·

    Eight months later is Android still in the same fragmented boat?

    Is Google doing anything to correct this?

    Last I read of Dilger's work on this it was the same, but I'm probably not up to date on the topic. I wonder how many consumers are?

  2. asymco ·

    Consumers of Android are happy because they are moving from a dumb/feature phone. Some will discover its limits and consider alternatives, but some will stay with the platform. The real problem with fragmentation is more on the developer side. The risk exists that developers will avoid it. But I think it's not the worst problem for developers right now. The lack of distribution is. An Android app can't reach internationally and it's also unlikely to get revenues other than ads.

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