Flurry, a company that provides metrics for smartphone usage, has released a new report with some very interesting data. The report says the number of available apps in the Apple App Store has increased from 25,000 in January 2009 to 65,000 in July 2009. If the store experiences the same growth rate, it could have over 100,000 apps by December 2009. The report notes, “To put this in context, the App Store soon will carry more items than the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, which merchandises about 100,000 items per store.” Flurry also tracks active user sessions of iPhone e-book applications and found that there were three million active users in July 2009, a 300% growth rate from April 2009. The e-book category of apps is now the second largest category representing 14% of the total apps.
In addition, Flurry tracks the number of “New Project Starts” to gauge developer interest for both iPhones and smartphones that include Google Android. According to the report, 18 new Android devices are scheduled to begin shipping this year and the growth rate of new Android projects increased 50% from June to July 2009. The iPhone still controls much of the developer interest, but interest in Google Android systems is increasing.
