A day after we and the rest of the world reported that the Android Market unofficially surpassed 20,000 applications, Google has come out and said it's not quite that many. TechCrunch, which was one of the first to report AndroLib's unofficial numbers, relays the following:
Lo and behold: Google got in touch with us this morning to let us know that the company, contrary to popular belief, isn’t all that shy about disclosing just how many apps are available through Android Market based on internal metrics.The actual number, a Google spokeswoman informs us, exceeds just 16,000.
AndroLib in response told TechCrunch that Google is low-balling things, likely only counting apps available to U.S. users, only counting apps through November (which is suspect because that'd mean 4,000 apps were added in 14 days), or "they simply didn’t do the best job possible counting the apps by not including the correct number of apps removed from the Android Market after publication."
So, 16,000 applications it is. Give or take.
