Google Play, the app store owned by Google Inc., has seen dramatic growth since it was launched in 2012. Now, Google Play has surpassed Apple Inc.’s App Store for the number of developers and applications for 2014, according to AppFigures .
The report shows that Google Play exceeded the Apple store with the number of applications available for the first time, and Google has more developers that Apple for the third year in a row. Google Play Store now holds impressive 1.43 million applications compared to 1.21 million featured by Apple’s App Store. Amazon’s mobile application store is on the market too, but it has been left far behind with around 293,000 mobile apps.
In 2014, Google doubled the number of apps developed for its platform compared to Apple, whose growth has been limited to under 60 percent. The development of applications is certainly on the rise, and for the present, Google seems to be leading the charge.
Although the numbers are excellent for Google Play , we must remember the two markets are not managed in the same way. Google allows its developers to publish the apps directly and steps in only when there is a mobile malware distribution or a violation of Google’s Terms of Service, while Apple does a detailed review before releasing an app to the public.
The level of growth is not necessarily an indication of a preference for any one particular development platform..Many developers are still launching their applications on iOS first, followed by an Android version of their application. This is influenced by the fact that Apple still provides many developers with a larger share of their income.
Overall, the three company’s app stores — Google, Apple and Amazon — all managed to increase their growth by at least 50 percent for the last year. Apple managed just over the 50 percent growth, Amazon was stronger with over 90 percent growth and Google topped the list with an impressive 105 percent growth for its app store.
Although it’s not yet clear if Google Play’s growth indicates a preference for developers, all three companies can be satisfied with solid growth for 2014.