Given my recent obsession with the Android Market, I was interested to read about Distimo‘s findings about the six largest mobile app stores: the iTunes App Store, BlackBerry App World, Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Distimo presented these results at the recent Mobile World Congress.
According to the report, Android has the highest number of free apps (57% of its apps). According to Read Write Web, this is due to:
- the open-source operating system, which attracts developers who may be more likely to give away their work
- the open approval process, which makes it easier for “casual developers” to get the app in the market
- anecdotally, developers’ dissatisfaction with the Google Checkout payment method for purchase
Additionally, with close to 20,000 apps, Android now has the second-largest app store, though it’s still far behind iTunes’ 150,000 apps. All the other app stores trail far behind.
“Apple is also the fastest growing store with a shocking 13,865 new applications added per month. Android’s growth is picking up too – they now have 3,005 new apps per month (15%). Relative to the number of apps housed, Android is actually the fastest growing store.”
For more on Distimo’s findings, check out its slideshow:
digital media studies 
Interesting comparative analysis. I think it’s a fair assessment that due to Google’s open source OS that more aps would be free. Either codes are trying it out trying to see what its like but also I think it’s an affinity of their audience if you think about googles products which have all been free to date. Another factor might be the relatively new appearance of android phones and the smaller adoption foot print. The smaller guy has to be more accomodating to get the attention of the market. It will be interesting to see how this may change over the next couple of years.