Feeling Enthusiappstic*

Last August I had what could be best described as a little temper tantrum about the state of the Android Marketplace and the dearth of quality official applications. But a year on I’m more mature (mostly) and so is the Android Marketplace.

When I last wrote on the subject I complained that big news outlets like Timeout, BBC and The Guardian were ignoring Android and catering just for the iPhone masses. ‘Limiting their market potential with every day they neglect Android in favour of iPhone only,’ was how I put. Well it seems that all three (and others) have sat up and taken notice of the big green Android-shaped opportunity in front of them. Time Out launched in March, BBC in May and The Guardian joining the party today. What’s more, sitting down with my iPhone-wielding colleague and comparing the apps side by side, the Android versions are pretty much as polished as their iOS counterparts.

The release of The Guardian’s app also happened to coincide with the release of a report from analysts Ovum saying that more apps will be downloaded this year on Android (8.1 billion) than iPhone (6 billion), finally marking the long predicted shift towards Google’s OS. Interestingly, however, iPhone will still account for the majority of paid applications ($2.86 billion of paid app revenues that versus $1.5 billion for Android). In fact, some people would argue that revenues are the better metric for judging the success of a platform/app store, something I would be inclined to agree with, yet it’s fair to say Android is making strides.

So what next for the apps market? Hopefully we’ll see not just more apps, but better quality applications from developers trying to set themselves apart from the masses. Also, I expect more varied pricing such as the subscription model used by The Guardian on iOS or the in-application micro-transactions model usually reserved for games being applied more widely. One thing’s for sure though, things look a lot better for Android users now – who knows, we may even get Football Manager this year?

*Sorry, this was solely used/created for the purpose of achieving a Googlewhack**

**Admittedly not an actual Googlewhack, but you get the point