Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

Apple Hits 100,000 iPad Apps, Further Lapping Tablet Competition

There’s no question that the iPad has a huge lead when it comes to tablet-optimized apps, but the size of that lead has reached truly staggering proportions.

As noted by Apple enthusiast site macstories.net, there are now more than 100,000 iPad apps — either apps that run only on the iPad or those that have been optimized to take advantage of its larger screen. That’s up from the 90,000 figure Apple announced at its Worldwide Developer conference earlier this month.

By contrast, none of Apple’s major rivals boast more than a couple hundred tablet-optimized apps. Math nerds will tell you that is nearly three orders of magnitude. Anyone else will tell you that’s just a really big lead to overcome.

While it is not terribly surprising that developers haven’t flocked to the entirely new RIM PlayBook, or that there are only a few hundred apps launching this week with the HP TouchPad, it is more shocking that there aren’t more tablet-optimized apps featured in the Android Market, considering the Motorola Xoom has been on the market for months and plenty of rivals have launched or are in the wings.

Android tablet app development could get a boost later this year with Ice Cream Sandwich, which is designed to unify the Honeycomb tablet operating system with the version of Android used in phones.

Of course, it is not just the numbers that matter, it’s the key apps as well. But there Apple’s lead is substantial as well, with many of the key names in almost any category present on the iPad but missing on one or all of its rivals.

(Editor’s Note: As you may notice, we’ve added a mention of macstories.net. Although we independently verified the information, it was always our intent to give them credit for being the first to point out the information, which is why a link to their posting has been in our story from when it was first posted. Now their name is there as well. Thank you to all who have voiced their opinions on this.)

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