Steve Jobs grossly exaggerated Android tablet app market size
While introducing iPad 2 last month, Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs described the competitive market for tablet apps on Google's Android 3.0 Honeycomb as having "at most 100 apps." The actual Android catalog appears to be closer to 17.
Jobs noted that the iOS App Store now has over 350,000 titles, of which 65,000 "take full advantage of the iPad," drawing attention to "consumption apps, creation apps and fantastic games, and a lot of apps for business and vertical markets apps like medical. The things people are doing here are amazing," Jobs said.
"That compares to our competitors, who are trying to launch these days with at most 100 apps. And I think we're being a little generous here. This is a huge advantage we have," Jobs added.
A review of Google's Android Marketplace tablet offerings "featured for tablets" depicts just 50 apps, but as blogger Justin Williams notes, "most are upconverted and offer no significant advantages on a tablet other than a larger screen."
Looking only at apps that either require Android 3.0 or have a user interface "specifically designed for a tablet experience," Williams counted only 17.
Jobs noted that the iOS App Store now has over 350,000 titles, of which 65,000 "take full advantage of the iPad," drawing attention to "consumption apps, creation apps and fantastic games, and a lot of apps for business and vertical markets apps like medical. The things people are doing here are amazing," Jobs said.
"That compares to our competitors, who are trying to launch these days with at most 100 apps. And I think we're being a little generous here. This is a huge advantage we have," Jobs added.
A review of Google's Android Marketplace tablet offerings "featured for tablets" depicts just 50 apps, but as blogger Justin Williams notes, "most are upconverted and offer no significant advantages on a tablet other than a larger screen."
Looking only at apps that either require Android 3.0 or have a user interface "specifically designed for a tablet experience," Williams counted only 17.
Comments
Negligible difference.
You are absolutely right, Android tablet apps are negligible.
Guess if I knew how to code in Android,
I could just "copy" so many of the excellent iPad-specific Apps, that I have on my iPad2.
And laugh, All The Way To the Bank !!!
Ha Ha Ha Hahhhh
or maybe Not
Steve is just being kind. He knows from experience so understands what it is like to be an underdog so why kick Androidophiles when they are so far behind even if the dog doesn't have a hind leg to stand on. I am sure Droids get their fair share of time in his meditative thoughts. Release anger, hug your enemy and peace shall clear the mind. Something like that.
No, it's more like "I can't fucking tell them the exact number of apps android has, 'coz they will find one or two more and then say in all newspapers that I am a liar, that once again big Steve is distorting reality, instead of focusing on the iPad.... ok, I'll give'em a hundred and they will fucking shut up 'coz if they don't someone will figure out they actually have ten or less and that will be fucking embarrassing for them.... twice. Heheh, they are SOOOO burned"
They are actually 20, and counting. The link is updated to 20. When I first heard about this on John Gruber, it was 16. It may assymptoticate to 30 or something.
As long as Honeycomb has great full-power, easy-to-use tablet apps that can match the quality of GarageBand, iDraw, SketchBook, Numbers, Keynote, iTeleport, and a few hundred more of the very best, plus a couple thousand really good games to choose from (because we all want choice), who cares if Android tablets have less of the mediocre and poor apps?
So... how do these Honeycomb apps stack up with the best of iPad offerings? Are they “good enough” in the sense of marking a checklist (“we have an app for that”) or are they truly great?
When will Android ever catch up to Apple?
It already has... someday in the future!
(That, quite literally, is the stance of all nine Android tablet zealots, and the most dedicated Android phone zealots too. The rest of us wait and see and hope for healthier competition to arrive some day. I think it might happen AND I think it could be from Android... but only if some big company takes Android and makes their own unique, incompatible, closed flavor of it, and manages to design it as well as Apple has. A tall order, but time is long!)
When will Android ever catch up to Apple?
at this rate probably never
When will Android ever catch up to Apple?
"When will then be now? ...Soon."
No, it's more like "I can't fucking tell them the exact number of apps android has, 'coz they will find one or two more and then say in all newspapers that I am a liar, that once again big Steve is distorting reality, instead of focusing on the iPad.... ok, I'll give'em a hundred and they will fucking shut up 'coz if they don't someone will figure out they actually have ten or less and that will be fucking embarrassing for them.... twice. Heheh, they are SOOOO burned"
Haha...Thats hilarious.
I dream of a Hybrid Device that would unite Apple and Android and give us the best of both worlds. Is it possible?
Of course it's possible. If you want the best of both worlds, get an iPad2.
I say 60 days.
When will Android ever catch up to Apple?
In the tablet space... when more Android tablets are out in the world so the developers have a reason to build Honeycomb apps.
Right now... The Xoom is the only Android tablet on the market... so would a developer spend lots of time making apps for it? There can't be that many out there...
Apple didn't have that problem. By the time their App Store opened in 2008... there were plenty of existing iPhones and iPod Touches in the world since 2007. Then add to that all the new iPhones that were purchased in 2008 and beyond. The apps kept coming as more and more iOS devices were bought. And that trend continues today.
It's gonna take a long time for Android tablets to reach critical mass.
If I was a developer... I'd focus on iPhones and Android phones... and the iPad.... looong before I spent time making apps for Honeycomb tablets.