Android market will become biggest mobile content platform in the world by August 2011

GERMANY: Google’s Android market is the fastest growing app store today. Currently it shows growth rates more than twice as high as Apple’s App Store. In April Android added 28,000 new apps, whereas Apple lagged behind with only 11,000 apps. Each market leaders adds more apps to their store every month than other platforms have in total.

Highest application growth rates
The Android market is clearly the most dynamic app market today with the highest growth rates in terms of app numbers, but this does not necessarily mean that the chance for an average developer to generate revenue on that platform has grown as well. On the contrary, the success of an app store is negatively correlated to the success of an average developer.

All analysis on the early months of an app store including the Android Market shows that average download numbers decrease dramatically after the first months or even weeks after the launch of the store. The long tail gets longer and longer while the top 5 percent gets richer and richer.

Promoting apps becomes more difficult
There are still niches in the Android market, but it is becoming more and more difficult to find them. A “go niche” strategy will become critical for all publishers who don’t have the marketing muscles to promote their apps with e.g. in–app advertisement campaigns or by leveraging existing marketing channels. “Go niche” could mean for the Android Market:

- Go niche category: Don’t submit your app to a category with hundreds of new adds per week.

- Use niche promotion: Make use of specialized Android sub market places which allow direct sponsoring possibilities within the store.

- Go niche independent stores: Make use of independent app stores to increased reach and to place your app in a less numerically competitive environment.

- Localize: Concentrate on a specific country with the service the app is offering.

- Be the first to know: Changes in the market will create new opportunities for those who are aware of them, and can make the most of them before competition jumps on the bandwagon.