From a November 2011 PCMag post... [1]
No matter which smartphone you own or are choosing to buy, the apps that are available for it can have an enormous influence on whether you're ultimately happy with your phone.
For every app store across every phone and mobile operating system, there are plenty of excellent apps that we recommend people download. And among that superb selection, there's always a remarkable sub-selection of apps that are totally free.
Our list of the top 100 free apps for your phone covers four of the most popular operating systems: Apple's iOS (iPhone), Google's Android, Research in Motion's BlackBerry OS, and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. While the iPhone has the lion's share of the market, with more apps in its app store than any other competitor, phones running Google's Android are catching up fast [2] .
BlackBerry doesn't make up quite as large a percentage of the mobile market as it used to, but anyone still loyal to the once-business-focused suite of phones and operating system will testify that some great, free apps are still being supported (although you may have to visit several different marketplaces, from the official BlackBerry App World to indie store GetJar, or even the developer's own website before finding them). Windows Phone 7â€"an impressive successor to the rather awful Windows Mobile platformâ€"is estimated to have around 25,000 apps, which sounds like a big number, though it’s a scant five percent of the more than 500,000 apps in Apple's App Store.
In the future, we hope to see smoother development porting processes that make it easier for app developers to turn out multiple versions of one app so it can run on more platforms. Will it ever happen, or do fragmented markets and operating systems keep competition fierce?
For consumers, sometimes competition is a good thing. It's surely what's keeping some of these 100 excellent mobile apps for your phone free.
Links
- ^ From a November 2011 PCMag post... (www.pcmag.com)
- ^ phones running Google's Android are catching up fast (www.pcmag.com)
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