The Google Play store has notched up 25 billion app downloads and announced that it currently has a total of 675 000 apps and games.
To celebrate passing the 25 billion milestone, Google says it will be offering a number of special deals until the end of the month.
Google's digital content director, Jamie Rosenberg, says: "Twenty-five billion is more than twice the distance, in miles, that the Voyager 1 spacecraft has travelled since its launch 35 years ago. It's the amount of time, in minutes, that have passed since some of our earliest ancestors began to set foot in Europe. And now, thanks to all of you, it's a Google Play milestone. We look forward to the next 25 billion."
Speaking of the special offers, Rosenberg says everyday users will be able to choose from a collection of apps from top developers such as Rovio, Electronic Arts, Gameloft and others for 25c.
"We'll also be offering some special collections, like 25 movies you must own, 25 banned books, 25 albums that changed the world, and our 25 top-selling magazines, all at special prices," says Rosenberg.
Closing in
The new milestone further closes the gap between Apple's App Store and Google Play. The App Store reached the 25 billion downloads milestone in March this year, and currently has 700 000 apps and games available for download - just 25 000 more than the Google Play store.
Earlier this month, Google also announced that 500 million Android devices have been activated globally, with 1.3 million added every day. This exceeds the figure of 400 million iOS devices sold to date, announced by Apple at the iPhone 5 product launch.
While Android has an advantage over Apple in terms of the sheer range of Android devices currently available globally, Apple still has the edge in terms of app retention and profitability.
Earlier this year, research by Localytics showed app retention rates on iOS were 52% higher than on Android. These findings were drawn from analysis of iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and HTML 5 apps across 300 million devices.
"iPhone and iPad users are 52% more loyal to their apps than Android users. A healthy 35% of Apple iOS users launched an app more than 10 times after downloading, compared to 23% of Android users," said Localytics, adding that there were, however, improvements across both platforms. "The general public surely gained experience over the last year, too, and are likely making more informed, discerning choices about what apps to try."
Apple also has a lead on Android in terms of downloads per user and revenue. ABI Research's practice director for mobile services, Dan Shey, says: "Apple's superior monetisation policies attracted good developers within its ranks, thus creating a better catalogue of apps and customer experience."
According to Ovum, while Apple can't compete with Android's diversity, the iPhone will continue to dominate the market for paid applications, with app revenue expected to reach $2.86 billion in 2016, compared with $1.5 billion for Android.
Both Android and Apple are streaks ahead of other platforms like Windows Phone and BlackBerry. Local representatives for Research In Motion (RIM) have, however, said that BlackBerry 10 will launch with 100 000 apps - which would be a record for a new platform. RIM also says its new platform is 40% more profitable for developers due to active efforts to reduce costs.
In July this year, RIM announced the BlackBerry App World had reached three billion downloads, and had a total of 90 000 apps available on the platform at the time. The Windows Phone Marketplace passed the 100 000 published apps mark in June this year, and still has a lot of catching up to do.
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