Android Market Reaches 10 Billion Downloads; Now at 1 Billion Downloads Per Month

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The Android ecosystem is growing at a fast pace. With almost a third of a million apps in the Android Market, Google’s official app repository is now getting about 1 billion downloads per month.

Our resident gaming editor Eric Abent recently reported that Android games and apps like Minecraft are now selling for 10 cents apiece. If you’re wondering why developers are so generous, it’s because Android Market has reached the 10 billion download milestone. As such, the Android Market is offering 10-cent downloads for 10 days.

It took a while for Android apps to gain traction among mobile users. The first billion download mark was reached in July 2010, or about 20 months after Android’s commercial launch. But after that, it’s been growing fast. Android Market got  2 billion more downloads by March 2011. Two months after, it’s at 4.5 billion. By July, Android app downloads were at 6 billion.

This December, Android users have downloaded 10 billion apps so far, and Android Developers blogger Eric Chu says the app ecosystem gets about 1 billion downloads per month. At this rate, Android Market is now at par with Apple’s App Store in terms of monthly download volume. But since Android’s 10 billion downloads is still about half that of Apple’s 18-billion iOS app downloads, Google has a long way to go before overtaking Apple in terms of downloads.

The application marketplace across mobile platforms now totals about 1 million apps in various genres: gaming, productivity, utilities, entertainment and the like. Among these, Apple iOS has a 59.6% share at 591,428 apps. Android gets 32.3% or 321,20 apps. BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 get the remaining 8% or so.