Android Market is kicking into gear!

[nader2013]

9308 Android Apps Hit The Market in March (Chart)

9308 Android Apps were made in March. And the market is at about 42,000 apps, still trailing the iPhone by about 100,000
Kudos to people developing for Android but every site I go on I see the same logo "Available on App Store" kinda annoying. When are we gonna see major developers and websites putting "Available on App Store and Android Market?
I know many people who have iPhones/iPod touches and they have so many more cool games and apps. Hopefully we will take over within the next year...

 

[crenita]

I am increasingly disappointed in the lack of apps for this phone. Other than the great apps that Google itself provides. I don't find most of the apps available that great or they are just plan junk apps.
When I go to get an app on a site or in the app store I never find it.. and after asking on various websites find they don't have android apps or even planning on dev ones..
I give this phone a chance up to and when Verizon gets the iphone. Then will seriously look to swap out phones even if I have to pay for it.

Very disappointed with lack of any reasonable way to download and view video's and lack of even a reasonable alternative to flash on the phone.

 

[trav473]

I am increasingly disappointed in the lack of apps for this phone. Other than the great apps that Google itself provides. I don't find most of the apps available that great or they are just plan junk apps.
When I go to get an app on a site or in the app store I never find it.. and after asking on various websites find they don't have android apps or even planning on dev ones..
I give this phone a chance up to and when Verizon gets the iphone. Then will seriously look to swap out phones even if I have to pay for it.

Very disappointed with lack of any reasonable way to download and view video's and lack of even a reasonable alternative to flash on the phone.

Well, when you consider that the Ifone has been out for 4 years, and Android out for just over a year, those are some pretty impressive numbers IMHO..... The Android snowball has just started rolling and it will surpass the Ifone!!! as far as the flashing goes, do the same with the Ifone.... see just how much you can do... I've had the Eris, and now the Moto Droid, I don't have any issues at all with flashing and applying a custom ROM. So I have to agree with the OP... WAY TO GO DEVS.. Keep it up!! and Thank you!!

 

[Hangdog42]

I don't find most of the apps available that great or they are just plan junk apps.
When I go to get an app on a site or in the app store I never find it.. and after asking on various websites find they don't have android apps or even planning on dev ones..

What are you looking for that you don't find or consider junk? To be honest, I'm finding Android apps to be decent and pretty much the equal of anything on the iPhone.

 

[PurpleSkyz]

What are you looking for that you don't find or consider junk? To be honest, I'm finding Android apps to be decent and pretty much the equal of anything on the iPhone.

Agreed, what app are you after?

I have everything I need,

Absolute need:
Remote VNC (although Jaadu was better, albeit 20 dollars)
MSN
Aldiko (e-reader)
Engaget
iMobster, homerunBase, and a few other games
Office (I forget the name)
PDAnet

Then the useless yet fun stuff:
barcode
bubbles
shazam
converter unit
skymap
wait, too many for me to post....

You got to give it a bit of time mate, but apps are comming along nicely and im seeing quite a few AppSotre apps coming over in the last month. It is in the interest of the companies to port over their apps to android as people buy Android handsets and they will realise that. Patience.

I do agree there is a lack of quality control , but thats why I love android over iphone, in the end, the extra crap apps dont magicaly remove the quality ones too.

 

[crenita]

Ok guys maybe your right but I am just so disappointed in some missing items.. simple things like AAA app... or wanting to listen to MSNBC on the radio.. or sling from my satellite dish or even reasonable sites to get GOOD current book, either audiobooks or ebooks..( current not classic books )) I have an Audible account now can't listen to my the books I purchased.... I spent over 1 1/2 hrs searching for some way to LISTEN to a radio station that is streaming on the net but our phone won't download the player..
Even purchased several apps thinking I needed to add some options..but no... nothing. I am just gettign frustrated.. I don't tinker with a phone I just need it to WORK..hehehe

 

[txa1265]

Well, when you consider that the Ifone has been out for 4 years, and Android out for just over a year, those are some pretty impressive numbers IMHO.....

Um ... no.

iTunes App Store came in July of 2008, and the Android Market opened in October of 2008.

The Android OS in terms of adoption on phones and general popularity ... yeah, that is much newer. And either way the iPhone is less than *3* years old, coming out in summer 2007.

But in terms of actual apps, 95% or more of what is in *both* places is amateur crap ...

 

[Legacystar]

I think we are going to start seeing a lot of disgrundled apple devs move over to android because of the new apple sdk. They locked out all programing languages except c/c++,objective c. I think android and winmo are going to start looking good to devs because they support adobe based apps

 

[OMJ]

Now that the market is growing they need to make it a lot easier to browse. There needs to be a lot more and more specific categories

 

[flbb2007]

No question there are a lot of apps available on the Android market but...it seems a lot of them are so buggy...pretty much worthless. Now I do understand, free is free and the ones for sale are dirt cheap no argument there. What I don't understand, if I am a developer and I am creating these, don't I create them with the intent to showcase the quality of my work and is this not a huge resume builder for me as a developer?
thus why all the junk stuff?

just curious

 

[tjreishus]

The app store had 56,000 apps available on its one year anniversary. Google is a little behind, but I just looked up and counted the number of android phones; 34! 34 different phones can access the market. Soon, more phones will be added and several tablets are coming out that will also access the market. This is compared to the 4 devices that can access the app store (correct me if I'm wrong with that figure). With all the phones that are coming out with the android system on it, and the fact that Steve Jobs just pissed off Apple devs (You can read about it here). I think its just a matter of time before the market takes over.

 

[RandolphNY]

Ok guys maybe your right but I am just so disappointed in some missing items.. simple things like AAA app... or wanting to listen to MSNBC on the radio.. or sling from my satellite dish or even reasonable sites to get GOOD current book, either audiobooks or ebooks..( current not classic books )) I have an Audible account now can't listen to my the books I purchased.... I spent over 1 1/2 hrs searching for some way to LISTEN to a radio station that is streaming on the net but our phone won't download the player..
Even purchased several apps thinking I needed to add some options..but no... nothing. I am just gettign frustrated.. I don't tinker with a phone I just need it to WORK..hehehe

I understand where you are coming from, but for me as a fairly newbee, I think its coming along.

Regarding radio stations, you can try flycast. Its not perfect, but will work, if you really need local stations, otherwise you can't beat Pandora. Of all the apps out there, I may cancel my sirius because of Pandora.

Also, download AppAware. This is pretty neat to see what other people are installing and uninstalling. I have been able to check a few out, keeping some and trashing others.

Good luck and try to enjoy!

 

[crenita]

thanks for the suggestions.. will check them out.. I do agree re Pandora .. I had never heard of it and now LOVE it... will just try to be patient, not my strong suite, and hold on until at least end of summer.. If nothing improves will probably move along to something that is a little more filled out than our current market.
But thanks for the suggestions..

 

[Cbrown]

I've got the curse-o-matic.

What else would you need?

 

[Bkfraiders7]

i love the marketplace, it has some impressive apps. i just wish my droid had some of the fun graphic game the iphone. does that mean il switch? no. il just wait.


also to the person saying the app stores came out same year- you have to remember that development for the iphone started just months after its release. jailbroken phones had their own app store and these apps came to the app store when it launched

 

[potatolover1102]

I think for me the biggest complaint is the ease of use on the market. Also the search function is horrible!!! I mean the other day I wanted to download pocket empires ( I HIGHLY recommend it btw!) and I typed in "pocket empire" and not "pocket empires" and it shows no results. It does not try to find keywords or help whatsoever.

 

[Psychokitty]

That's really kind of ironic that Google, a megalith search engine, does that. lol

 

[Somniferum]

Ok guys maybe your right but I am just so disappointed in some missing items.. simple things like AAA app... or wanting to listen to MSNBC on the radio.. or sling from my satellite dish or even reasonable sites to get GOOD current book, either audiobooks or ebooks..( current not classic books )) I have an Audible account now can't listen to my the books I purchased.... I spent over 1 1/2 hrs searching for some way to LISTEN to a radio station that is streaming on the net but our phone won't download the player..
Even purchased several apps thinking I needed to add some options..but no... nothing. I am just gettign frustrated.. I don't tinker with a phone I just need it to WORK..hehehe

For "current" ebooks you will need an ebook reader compatible with epub files that are DRM-enabled (unlike Aldiko which only reads DRM-free books -- the "classics" you mentioned). There is in fact such an ebook reader available for Android -- it's just not in the Market for some reason. It's called eReader and you can download it for free from this address on your phone:

Download eReader for Android

Note that you will need to enable unknown sources under application settings to install. With this app you can purchase books in epub format from Barnes & Noble and others (but not Amazon since they use the proprietary Kindle format instead of epub). Prices from what I've seen are comparable to what you would pay with iBooks.

 

[potatolover1102]

That's really kind of ironic that Google, a megalith search engine, does that. lol

I didn't even think about that lol. Yeah they should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[GirLuvsDroid]

Download eReader for Android

Note that you will need to enable unknown sources under application settings to install. With this app you can purchase books in epub format from Barnes & Noble and others (but not Amazon since they use the proprietary Kindle format instead of epub). Prices from what I've seen are comparable to what you would pay with iBooks.

I've been using eReader for years, first on Palm and then on my Droid. It can read epub and .pdb formats (which means it can read books I originally purchased for my Palm). I've been in touch with Barnes and Noble several times, and they have told me that books purchased at Barnes and Noble can only be read on the nook or the eReader downloaded from their site (not available for Android yet). My understanding is that their DRM will not work on the eReader you linked to. Have you actually had success downloading and reading ebooks purchased from Barnes and Noble on eReader? If so, that would be truly great news!

 

[Somniferum]

I've been using eReader for years, first on Palm and then on my Droid. It can read epub and .pdb formats (which means it can read books I originally purchased for my Palm). I've been in touch with Barnes and Noble several times, and they have told me that books purchased at Barnes and Noble can only be read on the nook or the eReader downloaded from their site (not available for Android yet). My understanding is that their DRM will not work on the eReader you linked to. Have you actually had success downloading and reading ebooks purchased from Barnes and Noble on eReader? If so, that would be truly great news!

Is there a difference between the epub books available from the eReader site, and those available on the B&N site? It was my understanding that they were the same thing, since I got to eReader via a link from the B&N site. If not, my bad -- are you saying there are actually two different apps named eReader associated with B&N?

I have installed the eReader app but haven't actually purchased any books yet -- still have several free ones to get through in Aldiko.

 

[crenita]

Yes that is true.. I just found that out after purchasing a book and ereader does NOT read the Barnes and Noble books...
I cannot find any ereader that lets you purchase or read current best sellers.. only public domain books.. Not what I want to do in my spare time..
Again another disappointment.

 

[messenger13]

I am increasingly disappointed in the lack of apps for this phone.

I think you just happen to want apps that are not very popular. Just my two cents...

Very disappointed with lack of any reasonable way to download and view video's and lack of even a reasonable alternative to flash on the phone.

Soon, both of these issues will be a distant memory. And umm ... the iPhone will still NOT be viewing Flash sites while the DROID can.

 

[Somniferum]

Yes that is true.. I just found that out after purchasing a book and ereader does NOT read the Barnes and Noble books...
I cannot find any ereader that lets you purchase or read current best sellers.. only public domain books.. Not what I want to do in my spare time..
Again another disappointment.

Sorry about that -- looks like I was misinformed about the B&N part. However, there ARE tons of contemporary books available for purchase on the eReader site, which presumably would work with the eReader app since it's from the same website (and can be accessed from within the app itself). I found the Joe Pitt series by Charlie Huston available in its entirety, to give one example. (The most recent book in that series was released in 2008.)

 

[Clementine_3]

I think for me the biggest complaint is the ease of use on the market. Also the search function is horrible!!! I mean the other day I wanted to download pocket empires ( I HIGHLY recommend it btw!) and I typed in "pocket empire" and not "pocket empires" and it shows no results. It does not try to find keywords or help whatsoever.

AppBrain, it's a no brainer! lol. It's really, really good at searches. I just typed in "empire" and it found "pocket empires" plus a whole lot of other stuff.