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Saturday, March 31, 2012

ANDROID APPLICATION MARKET BUZZ & THE COMPETITION

In the second half of year 2005, Google acquired Android, a small startup company based in Palo Alto, California (CA). Android has a vast community of developers writing applications a.k.a “apps” that extend the functionality of the devices. There are currently over 500,000 apps available for Android. Android Market is the online app store, currently, run by Google, though apps can also be downloaded from various third-party sites. Developers write primarily in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-Java libraries.

The Android application store’s growth rate has been accelerating since its launch, and even though it was anticipated that Android Market will at some point in the mid of 2011 offer more applications for download and/or purchase than Apple’s iTune Store hasn’t happened yet. Apple’s iPhone Apps still rule the smartphone applications roaster. An app store analytics company, Distimo, forecasted that Android would surpass the App Store in size before the end of July 2011 along with another research firm, Germany-based, research2guidance. In reality, the forecasts have gone wrong and there is still a close contest going between the Apple’s iPhone/iPad apps and Android apps.



Apple has really taken the market like a storm in last couple of years with frequent launches of its various innovative products with amazing features, of course, the latest iPad/iPhone versions rule the charts. On the other hand, Android market is also galloping like a warrior’s best horse especially in the developing nation markets with many mobile companies moving to Android operating system. Samsung’s Android mobile phones, of course, are giving tough competition to Apple’s iPhones/iPads in countries in Asia Pacific such as India.

On the contrary, the success of an Android/iPhone app stores is negatively correlated to the success of a developer rather than anyone else’s. All data from an app store including both the Android App Market and the Iphone App Markets shows that the download figures decrease drastically post the first months or even weeks after the launch of the app. And the reality is the long tail is getting longer while the top 10% gets richer!!

The latest buzz in the Android market is- Google is taking some great strides forward to get the better of the competition and recently launched Google “Play”. Now using “Google Play”, you can listen to your favorite music, read your favorite books, watch your most enjoyable movies, play astonishing apps, and games all in one place that are accessible from the Web and any Android device. In Google’s own words- “Discover, buy and share like never before”. I think it’s a great move by Google, I strongly believe it will be highly beneficial to the Android App market. For the developers and companies that publish Android Apps on the Android app store, there will be all new App Stats. App Stats show app’s installation performance across key areas such as countries, versions, device models, and others. Going forward it will be even more powerful for publishers with new metrics and ways to analyze data, and a redesigned user interface.

So, it is anticipated that Android App Marketing is going to rise so will be the businesses associated with Android Apps. Without any surprise, Android app testing, being such an important part of Android app market, will also flourish. Having said that not every Android App Testing company can harness business out of the opportunities and it requires huge efforts in terms of customer satisfaction and quality of services being delivered. I happen to meet one of such top performing Android App Testing companies- Testing4Success. Testing4Success is offering Android Application Testing/QA services for many years now and has established itself as one of the best Android App Testing/QA services business. Testing4Success makes sure that not once the customer needs to worry about the quality of application testing by performing exhaustive Android Apps Testing. Sure, this company knows the magic of launching perfectly adorable Android Apps in the market. Great !! So, in case you are looking for professional Android Application Testing/QA services, you know where to go- Testing4Success.

Testing4Success is one of the leading Testing/QA providers in North America. Besides the Android App Testing/QA, it provides following testing solutions- Application Testing/QA, Web Application Testing/QA, Mobile Application Testing/QA, and online ISTQB certification trainings.



My prediction about the Android App Market Vs the Iphone/iPad App Market is- the competition is going to get stiffer, and, Google and Apple will be implementing strategies one after the other to jolt the market. In case, I see more apps coming into the market, and of course that will lead to more choices for consumers to pick from. Whatever may be the case, it is going to be one truly exciting times in the smartphone’s (mobile) application market. Android Vs iPhone/iPad,  the game is on !!