List of mobile app distribution platforms
This list of mobile app distribution platforms includes digital distribution platforms that are intended to provide mobile apps to mobile devices. For information on each mobile platform and its market share see the operating systems section of the mobile operating system and smartphone. A comparison of development capabilities of each mobile platform can be found in the article mobile development. For cross-platform development see multiple phone web-based application framework. The article mobile software contains other general information.
Native platforms
These application marketplaces are native to the major mobile operating systems.
Name | Established | Status | Owner | Available apps | Download count | Installed base | Device platform | Allows individual developers to publish | Developer's cut per sale | Developer fees | Development tool(s) | Free of charge IDE? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon Appstore | 22 March 2011 | Live | Amazon.com | 330,000 (March 2015)[1] |
Unknown | Unknown | Android OS (customized), Android | Yes | 70% | US$99/year (Waive fee for first year, plus $50 AWS promo code[2]) |
Amazon Mobile App SDK[3] | Yes |
App Catalog | 6 June 2009 | Closed | Palm/HP | 10,002 (December 2011)[4] |
million 108 (August 2011)[5] |
million 2.6 (July 2010)[6] |
webOS[l 1] | Yes | 70%[7] | Free[7] | Enyo | Yes |
App Store | 10 July 2008 | Live | Apple | 1,400,000 (725,000 native to iPad) (January 2015)[8] |
billion 100 (June 2015)[9] |
million 800 (June 2014)[10] |
iOS[l 2] | Yes | 56–71% (varies depending on the country)[11] | US$99/year[12] | iOS SDK, Xcode | Yes (Xcode 6 is free on the Mac App Store and Apple Developer.) |
BlackBerry World | 1 April 2009 | Live | BlackBerry | 223,601 (26 October 2013) BlackBerry OS, PlayBook and BlackBerry 10 apps[13] |
billion 3 (May 2012)[14] |
million 75 (Jan 2012)[15] |
BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, BlackBerry 10 OS[l 3] | Yes | 70%[16] | Free[17] | BlackBerry 10 Native SDK (with full POSIX and Qt support), HTML5 Qt4 SDK, Android (via BlackBerry Android Tools SDK), Adobe AIR SDK, BlackBerry OS SDK | Yes |
Download Catalog | 1 October 2002 | Closed[18] | Danger, Inc./Microsoft | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Danger OS | Yes | 40% | Free | Danger OS SDK[19] | Yes |
Google Play | 22 October 2008 | Live | 3,500,000 (December 2017)[20][21] |
billion 50 (July 2013)[22] |
over billion 2 (May 2017)[23] |
Android[l 4] | Yes | 70% | US$25[24] | Android SDK, Android Studio | Yes | |
Firefox Marketplace | 6 September 2013 | Live | Mozilla Foundation | 5,957 (March 2014)[25] |
Unknown | Unknown | Firefox OS | Yes | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Yes |
Microsoft Store | 26 October 2012 | Live | Microsoft | 669,000+
(September 2015) |
Unknown | million PC devices 410 (November 2015)[26] million smartphones 93[note 1] |
Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone | Yes with restriction[note 2] | 70% that is raised to 80% if developer sales exceeds US$25,000 in a year | Individuals: US$19/year or US$0/year for student, Companies:US$99/year . One Registration fee for both of Windows phone Store and Windows Store. | Visual Studio 2013 or higher for Windows 8.1. Visual Studio 2015 or higher for Universal Apps. Windows App Studio |
Yes |
Nokia Store | 26 May 2009 | replaced with the Opera Mobile Store[37] | Nokia | 120,000 (August 2012)[38] | 17 million/day (October 2012)[38] ~ billion (August 2012) 6[39] |
million 885 |
Multiple[l 5] Symbian, MeeGo, Maemo, S40, Nokia X software platform |
Yes | 70% | 1 €[40] | Qt 4 SDK,[41] Nokia Web Tools,[42] Nokia SDK for Java, Java ME[43], Nokia X services SDK [44] | Yes |
Samsung Galaxy Apps | June 2009 | live | Samsung | |||||||||
Ubuntu App Store | 17 October 2013 | Live | Canonical | 2,650+ (December 2015, incl. web apps and scopes) [45] |
Unknown | Unknown | Ubuntu Touch | Yes | Unknown | Unknown | Ubuntu SDK | Yes |
Windows Phone Store | 21 October 2010 | merged with the Windows Store[46] | Microsoft | 400,000+ (March 2015) |
billion 9 (March 2015)[47] ( per device) 105 |
million 100 (June 2015)[27][48][49][50][31][28][29] |
Windows Phone[l 6] | Yes | 70% | US$19 for individuals, or US$99 for companies /year/unlimited paid apps and 100 free apps submissions Or
Free for students [51][52] One Registration fee for both of Windows phone Store and Windows Store. |
Windows Phone Developer Tools, includes specialty versions of Microsoft Visual Studio, Expression Blend | Yes |
Name | Established | Status | Owner | Available apps | Download count | Installed base | Device platform | Allows individual developers to publish | Developer's cut per sale | Developer fees | Development tool(s) | Free of charge IDE? |
- Notes
- ↑ Including Windows Phone 8.0, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile. Excluding Windows Phone 7, because although it is still live, so is no longer supported and never be able to take advantage of all types of applications (e.g. universal apps)
- ↑ Microsoft classifies developer accounts to individual accounts and company accounts. Individual accounts are restricted from using specific app capabilities and cannot list desktop apps in Windows Store, while company accounts do not have this restriction.[35] Microsoft verifies company accounts by contacting the company official, while this is not done for individual accounts.[36]
Third-party platforms
Third-party platforms are software distribution platforms which are used as alternatives for operating system native distribution platforms. Independent operating systems are software collections which use their own software distribution, customized user interface, SDK and API (except billing API which is related only to application store).
Name | Established | Status | Organizations | Available apps | Download count | Install base | Device platform | Developer's cut per sale | Developer fees | Developer Console | Development platform(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Appland | 2011 | Live | Appland | 130,000[53] | 25 million (March 2016) | 5 million (March 2016) | Android and iOS | Up to 70% | Free | Unknown | Unknown |
Aptoide | October 2010 | Live | Aptoide | 311,000 (April 2015) |
million 300 (March 2013) |
million 10.5 (January 2013) |
Android | up to 87.5% | Free | Unknown | Android SDK, Java ME |
Cydia | February 2008 | Live | saurik | Unknown | Unknown | million 30 | iOS | N/A | Free | Unknown | iOS SDK, Xcode |
F-Droid | 2010 | Live | F-Droid Limited | 1,878[54] | million 248 (Mar 2015)[55] |
Unknown | Android | N/A | Free | Unknown | Android SDK |
GetJar | 2004 | Live | GetJar, Accel Partners | 849,036 (March 2015)[56] |
billion 3 (March 2015)[57] |
million users 200[56] | Multiple[58] Android, BlackBerry OS, Flash Lite, Java, iOS, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows Phone |
N/A | Free[58] | Unknown | Unknown |
Handango | 2000 | Closed | PocketGear | 190,000[59] | Yes | Unknown | Multiple[l 7] Android, BlackBerry OS, Palm OS, PSP, Symbian, Windows Mobile |
≈42% | Free | N/A | |
Handmark | 2000 | Closed | Handmark | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Multiple[l 8] Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Java, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows Mobile |
Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
MiKandi | 29 November 2009 | Live | MiKandi | Unknown | Unknown | 80,000 (December 2009)[60] |
Android[61] | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
Opera Mobile Store | March 2011 | Live | Opera Software | 300,000 (November 2014)[62] |
million per month 45 (December 2012)[63] |
Unknown | Multiple[64] Android, Java, Symbian, BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, iOS |
70% — Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile; 50% — Java[65] | Free[65] | Unknown | Android SDK, Java ME, S60, BlackBerry SDK, Windows Phone Developer Tools |
PocketGear | 1999 | Closed | PocketGear | 140,000 (June 2010)[66] |
Yes | Unknown | Multiple Android, BlackBerry OS, Java, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows Mobile |
≈55% | Free | Unknown | N/A |
Name | Established | Status | Organizations | Available apps | Download count | Install base | Device platform | Developer's cut per sale | Developer fees | Developer Console | Development platform(s) |
References
- ↑ Amazon App Store for Android. Retrieved 11 March 2014
- ↑ "Amazon Developer Portal". amazon.com. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
- ↑ "Amazon Mobile App SDK". amazon.com.
- ↑ "App Stores:Distimo". Retrieved 24 June 2011.
- ↑ "Official App Catalog App Gallery : Precentral.net". Retrieved 22 January 2011.
- ↑ "comScore Reports July 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share". Retrieved 15 September 2010.
- 1 2 "Developing and Distributing with Palm: Developer Program Details". Retrieved 4 June 2010.
- ↑ Steve Ranger (January 16, 2015). "iOS versus Android. Apple App Store versus Google Play: Here comes the next battle in the app wars". ZDNet.
- ↑ Nathan Ingraham (June 9, 2015). "Apple's App Store has passed 100 billion app downloads". The Verge.
- ↑ "Apple has sold more than 800 million iOS devices, 130 million new iOS users in the last year". Retrieved June 2, 2014.
- ↑ "App Store Pricing Matrix".
- ↑ Apple Inc. "iOS Developer Program - Apple Developer". Developer.apple.com. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ↑ The App World Analytics Website Archived 18 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine.. AppWorldReport.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
- ↑ "Three Billion and Counting". BlackBerry Developer Blog. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
- ↑ Motorola il iDEN (25 June 2010). "RIM Q1 2010 Results - 100 Millionth BlackBerry Served". Intomobile.com. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ↑ Duryee, Tricia (19 August 2010). "BlackBerry Takes Larger Cut Of Developer Revenues In Updated App World". mocoNews. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ↑ "BlackBerry App World FAQ". Research In Motion. Archived from the original on 10 March 2009. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ↑ "» Downloadable Content Goes Away March 2nd - Sidekick 4G / Sidekick LX 2009 / Sidekick 2008 / Sidekick 3 / Hiptop 3". Hiptop3.com. 1 March 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ↑ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 27 February 2009. Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ↑ "Number of Google Play Store apps 2017 | Statistic". Statista. Retrieved 2018-01-03.
- ↑ Number of Android applications - AppBrain. AppBrain.com (22 July 2016). Retrieved on 22 July 2016.
- ↑ Google Play Passes 50 Billion App Downloads. Mashable.com (18 July 2013). Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
- ↑ "There are now 2 billion Android monthly active devices around the world". The official YouTube Channel of Android. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
- ↑ Developer Registration - Android Developer Help. Support.google.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
- ↑ Search Results | Firefox Marketplace. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
- ↑ 23.03% of 1.775billion PC installed base is about 410million. ( 1.7billion PC installed base in August is calculated as: Windows 10 is on more than 75M devices on 26th Aug (after 28 days) http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/08/26/windows-10-now-on-75-million-devices/ By linear approx. is 88M Windows 10 devices on 31st Aug (after 33 days). Base on estimation 5,21% of Windows 10 devices on 31st Aug by http://www.netmarketshare.com/, its mean about 1.7billion PC devices on market. This also corresponds to https://www.gartner.com/doc/1602818/forecast-pc-installed-base-worldwide and http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2791017 and also corresponds with 1.65Billion two months back (with 25M monthly increment) (http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/24/technology/windows-microsoft-sales/). On 30th Nov is reported 23.03% share of Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 by http://www.netmarketshare.com/. )
- 1 2 Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Declined 1.7 Percent in 2012. Gartner.com (13 February 2013). Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
- 1 2 "Gartner Says Smartphone Sales Surpassed One Billion Units in 2014". gartner.com.
- 1 2 "Microsoft has now sold over 100 million Windows Phones - MSPoweruser". wmpoweruser.com. 21 July 2015.
- ↑ "Windows Phone Device Stats for January 2013 – AdDuplex blog". blog.adduplex.com.
- 1 2 "Gartner Says Annual Smartphone Sales Surpassed Sales of Feature Phones for the First Time in 2013". gartner.com.
- ↑ "Gartner Says Emerging Markets Drove Worldwide Smartphone Sales to 19 Percent Growth in First Quarter of 2015". gartner.com.
- ↑ "Gartner Says Worldwide Smartphone Sales Recorded Slowest Growth Rate Since 2013". gartner.com.
- ↑ "Gartner Says Emerging Markets Drove Worldwide Smartphone Sales to 15.5 Percent Growth in Third Quarter of 2015". gartner.com.
- ↑ "Account types, locations, and fees". microsoft.com. Microsoft.
- ↑ "Opening a developer account". microsoft.com. Microsoft.
- ↑ "Microsoft and Opera Software sign agreement to extend Opera Mobile Store to more Nokia phones". Opera Press Releases (Press release). Opera Software ASA. November 18, 2014. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
- 1 2 "Nokia Developer - Global reach statistics". Developer.nokia.com. 22 August 2012. Archived from the original on 10 August 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
- ↑ "Nokia store passes 11 million downloads a day". All About Symbian. 10 January 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
- ↑ Nokia Developer - Publishing your app. Publish.ovi.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
- ↑ Nokia Developer - Qt. Developer.nokia.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
- ↑ Nokia Developer - Nokia Web Tools. Developer.nokia.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
- ↑ Nokia Developer - Tools centre. Developer.nokia.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
- ↑ Microsoft. "Nokia X Platform Overview". nokia.com.
- ↑ "uApp Explorer". uappexplorer.com. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
- ↑ "(Update: It's not the new unified Windows Store) Microsoft's universal app store for Windows 10 goes live on the web - MSPoweruser". mspoweruser.com. 16 July 2015.
- 1 2 "Microsoft reports 50% active Windows Phone user growth over the last year, 400,000 apps in the store - MSPoweruser". wmpoweruser.com. 25 March 2015.
- ↑ "Gartner Says Asia/Pacific Led Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales to Growth in First Quarter of 2013". gartner.com.
- ↑ "Gartner Says Smartphone Sales Grew 46.5 Percent in Second Quarter of 2013 and Exceeded Feature Phone Sales for First Time". gartner.com.
- ↑ "Gartner Says Smartphone Sales Accounted for 55 Percent of Overall Mobile Phone Sales in Third Quarter of 2013". gartner.com.
- ↑ "Registration info". microsoft.com. Microsoft.
- ↑ "Unifying Developer Registration: Windows and Windows Phone". Building Apps for Windows.
- ↑ "Appland Web Page". Retrieved March 29, 2016.
- ↑ List of known apks in the F-Droid repository — Run "awk '{print $2}' | uniq | wc -l" to get the number — 30 January 2014
- ↑ Downloads data— 11 March 2015
- 1 2 "GetJar - Mobile - The Worlds Biggest Open App Store". GetJar. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
- ↑ "Company - GetJar Developers". GetJar. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
- 1 2 "GetJar - Mobile - The Worlds Biggest Open App Store". getjar.com.
- ↑ http://assets.handango.com/marketing/collateral/HandangoOverview.pdf
- ↑ Jordan, Jon (9 December 2009). "Android adult-only app store MiKandi launches on a natural high". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on 5 October 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
- ↑ Matyszczyk, Chris (29 November 2009). "Droid does, iPhone doesn't: The porn app store". CNET. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
- ↑ "Microsoft and Opera Software sign agreement to extend Opera Mobile Store to more Nokia phones". Opera Press Releases (Press release). Opera Software ASA. November 18, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
- ↑ "A new and improved Opera Mobile Store". Opera Press Releases (Press release). Opera Software ASA. February 27, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
- ↑ "Opera Publisher Portal". opera.com.
- 1 2 "Software Distribution Agreement" (PDF). Opera Software. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
- ↑ http://corp.pocketgear.com/about.html
Other references
- ↑ "Palm Developer Network". Developer.palm.com. 29 August 2011. Archived from the original on 15 December 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ↑ Apple Inc. "iOS Dev Center". Developer.apple.com. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ↑ "BlackBerry App World Vendor Support". Na.blackberry.com. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ↑ "Android Developers". Developer.android.com. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ↑ Nokia Developer - Your idea. Our tools. Developer.nokia.com (22 February 1999). Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
- ↑ Windows Phone 7 Archived 2 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ "Handango's Partners". handango.com.
- ↑ "Handmark - OneLouder Apps". handmark.com.