Android Market beats Apple App Store’s speed to 10 billion downloads

By reaching 10 billion downloads (yes, that’s billion) this week, Google’s Android Market has taken another prize from its biggest rival in the smartphone field, Apple’s App Store.

The rise and rise of the Apple App Store has been a genuine phenomenon, with download targets falling at frightening speed. But at every turn, Android Market has met – and now surpassed it.

Both Android Market and the Apple App Store took just nine months to go from one billion to three billion downloads, reports Mobile Business Briefing. But where Apple took a year to then raise the bar from three to 10 billion downloads, it has taken Android Market just nine months.

Of course, the App Store had a head start on Google’s Android Market, and in fact announced that it had passed 15 billion downloads back in July, well under three years since its launch – an astonishing success story.

Also, Apple will point to the fact it is concentrating on the high end of the smartphone market and not simply on volume sales, which have seen a vast array of budget Android smartphones flooding the market from the likes of LG and Samsung.

However, as Apple has been quick to show off about its various landmarks, it would seem unlikely it would now detract from the importance of such figures, even when they’re from a rival.
What it does mean, just in case anyone hadn’t already put the argument to bed, is that buying a smartphone on choice of apps is no longer a valid argument when it comes to Apple vs Android. 

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft’s Windows Mobile – now well and truly back on track and with Nokia in tow – manages to scale up against its rivals.