Google Matches Apple With 700,000 Mobile Apps
On Sept. 12, during its iPhone 5 event in San Francisco, Apple announced one of those big, round numbers it’s so fond of trotting out during new product showcases: 700,000 apps available for download on the iTunes App Store.
That’s an impressive number, and one Apple stressed again at its iPad mini event last week, pointing out the strengths of its mobile device ecosystem over others. But that metric is a bit less potent today, now that it has been matched by Apple’s archrival in the mobile OS space.
There are now 700,000 apps available for download on Google’s Android operating system, a company spokesperson confirmed to AllThingsD. That’s 25,000 more than it offered just a month ago, and enough to tie Apple for bragging rights on “world’s biggest app ecosystem.” So, one more point of differentiation gone between the two fiercest competitors in the mobile device space, and an ever-widening crevasse separating them from stragglers like Research In Motion, Microsoft and Nokia.