Maturing Android Market hits 20,000 applications

The Android Market has grown from zero applications to 20,000 strong in a little over a year. According to Androidlib, a Web site dedicated to tracking the Android Market, the milestone was reached on Tuesday. While this is an unofficial tally, it's a telling figure nonetheless.

Android shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the number of applications is growing from month to month. After taking nearly 10 months to cross the 10,000 mark, the market doubled in size over the next five months.

With all the talk of unhappy developers, it's still becoming increasingly obvious that developers aren't sitting on the sideline any longer. I can't think of one company or team still taking the "wait and see" approach. The largest mobile application market, Apple's App Store, has over 100,000 applications available, but many analysts believe Android has the potential to contend with the iPhone in the coming year.

While the number of apps may have doubled in the last five months, the mix between paid and free titles has remained practically unchanged. Free applications accounted for roughly 64 percent of the selections back in September, whereas today that number is around 62 percent.