Yes, there's an app for that. And that. And that ....
Mobile apps have crossed a significant milestone, surpassing the one million count early Thursday morning, announced real-time app tracker and analytic site Mobilewalla. There are now 1,001,219 apps across the collective mobile phone platforms -- Apple, Android, Blackberry, and Windows, said Anindya Datta, the founder and executive chairman of Mobilewalla.
“This is truly an astonishing accomplishment that cannot be ignored," he told FoxNews.com. The growth of apps is the fastest growing consumer segment in the history of commerce.”
The app world seems unstoppable with categories ranging from games, social networking, music, books, sports, health and fitness, to education, news, utilities, productivity, and business.
Availability varies wildly across those different platforms, however.
In the last 12 months, the Apple app market grew from 338,000 to 597,253. Similarly Android apps went from 115,000 to 324,003. Blackberry is currently at 43,548 apps and Windows at 36, 415 apps, but this number could increase dramatically as the platform grows and gains traction.
Mobilewalla can't label a specific app as the millionth, but here are a few that were most recently created: Scoop by Ness Computing, a social-networking app for the iPhone; Cyberesa's Tunisia: Tunisian Tourism App for Android smartphones; Santa Tracker for Blackberry smartphones and The Civil War and E-book from Scrollmotion for Microsoft's Windows Phone.
The iTunes App store opened in July, 2008, followed by Google’s Android Marketplace in October, 2008. More recently, Blackberry-maker RIM and Microsoft have launches their own platforms.
"In the early days most of the initial apps were fun, indie apps, such as the Doodle Jump game, one of the first mass-market apps to gain viral popularity," Datta said. That app "paved the way for other mass successes like Angry Birds.”
"As app usage skyrocketed, the nature of the app ecosystem changed quickly – new apps were designed to improve our lives, disseminate news, weather and even crop data in places like rural India,” he added.
Across all platforms, the top app categories are consistent. Entertainment apps are the most popular overall, with 16.7 percent of the market. Games alone make up 13.4 percent, while books are 10.2 percent. Education apps constitute 7.1 percent of the market, music apps 3.3 percent, and news apps 2.9 percent.
Surprisingly, social networking apps are just 2.7 percent of the market.
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