Android Market to Overcome Apple's App Store in July, Has Most Free Apps

Google's Android Market is on its way to leave Apple's App Store behind in a matter of months, based on the current growth pace, a recent report from Distimo shows. The application portal has increased 16 percent from the last month, and is expected to at least maintain the same growth rate. In comparison, Apple's App Store grew only 6 percent, and might slow down even more.

However, it seems that all software portals registered only moderate growth during the past few months, although the things started to accelerate in March.

With over 330K apps available for download, the Apple App Store still leads the pack, though the Android Market is expected to near fast, and to grow from 206k apps now to over 330k in June.

“First, the Google Android Market is predicted to have only 40,000 applications less than the Apple App Store for iPhone by the end of June 2011, and will close the remaining gap before the end of July 2011,” Distimo notes.

“Second, we predict that the BlackBerry App World will double in size over a six-month period and will most likely be larger than Nokia Ovi Store by the end of May 2011.”

The company notes that the predictions for the next three months are based on the growth of these app stores during the past three months.

Moreover, they note that the lower half of the app store list would see some changes as well in the next few months, with the Windows Phone Marketplace set to leave BlackBerry App World, Ovi Store and Palm App Catalog behind in a matter of months.

“The last finding is not shown in the graph, although the trend can still be observed. At its current growth rate, the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will be larger than the Nokia Ovi Store and BlackBerry App World before the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace has even been available for a full year,” Distimo notes.

They also show that Google's app store is currently on top of the free apps list, with over 10k free apps more than Apple's Apps Store. The rest of the storefronts still have too few applications available to enter the competition.

Those interested in finding out more info on Distimo's latest report should head over to the company's website to download it.