Google Play Now Has 600,000 Apps

Sites include Google.com . Published on July 13th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

A few months ago Apple surpassed the 25 billionth download from its apps marketplace; well guess what? Google isn’t far behind.

The search giant revealed recently at a conference that it is now seeing over 1.5 billion installs a month from its 600K database of apps in its marketplace. In all there has been 20 billion app downloads on the Android platform and at the current pace, it’s a matter of a few months before Android sees its 25 billionth download.

But huge numbers weren’t the only thing Google had to boast about. The latest iteration of Android dubbed ‘jelly bean’ is now more secure and users who download apps are now doing so encrypted. Developers have also been looked after with the introduction of Google Cloud Messaging, a system that gives developers free Android notifications.

There’s also a new feature that called smart app updates. This allows the updating of apps without the cumbersome task of downloading the whole app again. In this new updating system, only the new data is downloaded to the device, saving time, bandwidth and battery life.

All these new features perhaps help to explain why Android devices are now being sold in over 132 countries and why developers are spearheading the growth of their apps by offering them free in over 190 countries.

All in all Android seems poised for a takeover; don’t ask me when, but it shouldn’t be too long.