Apps Created for Android, iPhone May Top One Million

A milestone was hit today in the market for smartphone apps. There may be a million of them out there.

If all the mobile applications ever created for the Android and iOS operating systems are tallied, they exceed that magical number, according to the app counters at Appsfire.

Unsurprisingly, only about 800,000, or 80 percent, of those apps are still active, Appsfire estimated. However, predicted that the combined total for active apps will break one million sometime in December.

Appsfire also noted that iOS apps hold a slight edge over Android apps, 52 percent to 48 percent. That gap will narrow as active apps approach the one million mark, with the split being closer to 50-50.

However, a survey of websites of other app counters didn't yield numbers as high as Appsfire's. That may be because Appsfire included apps found outside the Android market and global app numbers in its tally. The 148Apps.biz site, for example, pegged the total number of apps ever seen in Apple's U.S. App Store to be 593,492, while AppBrain pinned the current total of Android apps in the market at 282,830.

Apps in the Android marketplace can fluctuate, especially toward the end of a quarter, explained AppBrain. That's when Google typically prunes the marketplace of dubious apps at that time, it said.

While raw app numbers can be impressive--and boost the credibility of the catch phrase "there's an app for that"--the fact is that the number of bread-and-butter apps in an app store is in the ballpark of about two-dozen. For example, pollster Nielsen found that Android users spent 43 percent of their time with the top 10 apps in that market. Furthermore, they spent 61 percent of their time with the top 50 apps, Nielsen noted.

So if only a few number of apps are actually used by users, why all the posturing about "my store has more apps than your store?" From a marketing point of view, "more" is almost as attractive as "new" to technology consumers--even if the more is more of the same. For example, PCWorld's app expert, Armando Rodriguez, says that more than 900 Solitaire game apps have been written for the iPhone and 1200 for Android.

[Read: Why the Number of Apps in an App Store Doesn't Matter]

"If you were to remove all the copycat apps, you would probably end up with around the same number of apps currently available on Windows Phone 7 (30,000), which is a huge difference in terms of app variety," Rodriguez observed. "That's not to say that the WP7 platform doesn't suffer from duplicates. It does--just not on the same scale as Android and iOS."

While a million apps is quite an achievement, it may reveal more about repackaging ideas than innovation in the apps market.

Follow freelance technology writer John P. Mello Jr. and Today@PCWorld on Twitter.

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Get Android Running on a TouchPad, Win Up To $1500 in Prizes

A bounty as high as $1500 is up for grabs to the first person to get Android running on HP's ill-fated TouchPad. Details of the contest were posted to the site Hack n Mod following a weekend of TouchPad price cuts and a rush by shoppers to snap up the tablet for as little as $99. As you many expect, following the seemingly sharp increase in the TouchPad's installed base, it wasn't surprising to see the hacking community get behind the abandoned device.

A similar effort to install the Android OS onto the HP tablet is underway by a group called TouchDroid. The TouchDroid team revealed plans to get the Gingerbread version of Android working on HP's 9.7-inch tablet Monday.

Unlike TouchDroid, the Hack n Mod offer includes cash prizes as an incentive. Hack n Mob will reward $450 to first person to port Android to the TouchPad. It pays $350 more if you can get Android Wi-Fi support to work on the TouchPad, $300 more for audio support, $300 if you can get the camera to work, and $100 for multi-touch support. See the Hack n Mod site for complete details.

If you have grabbed a TouchPad, will you be looking to put Android on it? Let us know in the comments.

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HP's WebOS Crashes Under Apple, Android Pressure

Hewlett-Packard's announcement on Thursday to stop making tablets and smartphones based on webOS surprised many analysts, who said the company buckled under the pressure of Apple's momentum and growing support for Android.

HP announced it would stop selling webOS devices, including the TouchPad tablets and smartphones, as it looks to transform its operations to focus on enterprises. HP plans to concentrate on its enterprise and printer businesses and sell or spin off its Personal Systems Group (PSG), which is responsible for sales of the PCs and webOS devices.

However, the company said it would look for ways to use and "optimize" the webOS platform, including licensing it to hardware makers. HP acquired webOS along with Palm last year for US$1.2 billion, and at the time said it would use the OS across a range of devices including tablets and printers.

But sales of webOS smartphones and tablets have not been gaining traction in the fast-moving and complex consumer market, said Leo Apotheker, HP's CEO, on a conference call to discuss third-quarter financial results.

"Sales of the TouchPad are not meeting our expectations," Apotheker said.

Tough Tablet Market

HP hoped to establish webOS as a clear second OS platform for mobile devices, but the software ecosystem is poor and the TouchPad hardware was not received as anticipated, said HP's chief financial officer, Cathie Lesjak. The pricing of TouchPad tablets was cut by $100 shortly after launch in July, and the profit margins on those devices grew thinner, Lesjak said.

The TouchPad couldn't compete in a market dominated by Apple's iPad and the many available Android tablets, said David Daoud, research director at IDC.

Much like Apple's mobile device strategy, HP intended to wrap together hardware, software and services but lost patience and decided to cut its losses, said Ezra Gottheil, senior analyst at Technology Business Research.

"With their OS, building the market would've taken time. It's clearly an offering that required patience," Gottheil said.

Gottheil didn't expect HP to give up on webOS so quickly as it had the promise of being a high-margin product for HP, much like Apple's products.

With the decision to separate the hardware and software businesses, HP runs counter to the trend in the mobile market to vertically integrate development. With Google's planned acquisition of Motorola, Windows Phone became the only major OS whose creator doesn't also make hardware. Now, however, HP joins Microsoft as developer of an OS that is licensed to hardware makers.

"Now that Google has acquired its own hardware vendor, webOS could be a good alternative for some of the Android-only vendors," said Chris Hazelton, an analyst with The 451 Group.

Which Phone OS?

While phone makers like HTC and Samsung use other OSes, they rely heavily on Android. Many experts have said they expect those hardware vendors to be wary of Android after Google's Motorola acquisition, since it's likely that Google will favor Motorola.

While it looked like Windows Mobile might benefit as a result, Hazelton says that HP's announcement may put a damper on that potential boost.

"WebOS could be a cheaper alternative to Windows Phones" for hardware makers looking for non-Android options, Hazelton said.

In addition to the likely lower cost for webOS, handset makers would have more options with webOS to choose their own added services. Google and Microsoft both like licensees of their phone software to use their search, map and other services. But with webOS, a handset maker could choose whatever services they wanted or even build their own, Hazelton said.

Still, even though many people have praised the webOS software, the announcement doesn't look good, since it's clear that HP was unable to successfully sell phones using the software. That means HP will face a significant challenge: convincing developers to continue working on the software.

Developers must have the confidence in the success of the platform to convince them to spend the money required to develop for it, said Will Stofega, an analyst with IDC.

"You can have the greatest OS in the world, but you also need applications to run on that platform," Stofega said.

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