Overcoming the Android MarketPlace problem
With the Android MarketPlace set to pass the 50,000 application count just in time for Google I/O later this month finding decent apps is getting tough, the same applies in the Apple AppStore. The Android market place has grown almost 6 times the size in a year (Apple only 3 times) [source] but let's not forget that Apple heavily restricts apps that appear in the store whereas with Android anything goes - but then that's not to say that this is the full count of available applications. There's nothing to stop me creating my own Android app and selling it directly from my own website via download and these numbers won't go reported. Given that both platforms have been out for similar amounts of time the Android numbers are low but the explosion that we're now seeing in the shere number of available handsets across the operators is going to help drive these numbers up at a massive rate.
The Android MarketPlace app is much like the Apple Appstore, you see feature a few 'Featured' Applications and then can find applications by categories or search - there's no popularity, download count filters etc. There's a bunch of websites that provide an alternative view on the marketplace with some real value added like SlideMe, but I really like one called AppBrain. As well as showing you application rankings, downloads, categorizations, summary of your spending - they also provide their own Android Application. What's neat about it is that you are able to manage the applications both from your phone or their website in that you can set an application to install from the website and it would then appear on your phone, uninstall it etc but you can also sync and share your installed applications list, here's my list of installed applications for starters so let's see yours!
