Google celebrates with apps costing just 10 cents

More than 10-billion applications made for Google's Android platform have been downloaded says a report on News24. It refers to statistics compiled by Google that Android applications are now being downloaded at the rate of about one billion a month.

News24 further reports that Eric Chu, director of the Android Developer Ecosystem, says that to celebrate passing the 10-billion mark, the company will offer a selection of applications to users for the next 10 days at just 10 cents each.

More than 50% of the smartphones sold worldwide in the third quarter of this year were running the Android software according to research firm Gartner. A total of 60,5-million phones were sold and Android now has 52,5% of the market.

Nokia - once the most popular phone in the world - sold 19,5-million smartphones using the Symbian operating system in the same period and this means that its market share has fallen from 36,3% last year to just 16,9% in the third quarter.

Apple meanwhile has said that more than 15-billion applications have been downloaded from its App Store for the iPhone, the iPod and the iPad.

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