The Daily Stat: 1 million

Total number of mobile apps available across the major smartphone platforms
Source: Mobilewalla

"The growth of apps is the fastest growing consumer segment in the history of commerce."  

- Anindya Datta, founder of Mobilewalla 

Mobilewalla, a firm that specializes in mobile app analytics and provides real-time tracking, announced today that the total number of apps available from the 4 major smartphone platforms (Apple iOS, Google Android, Blackberry OS and Windows Phone) has surpassed the 1 million mark.

So What?

The app market is growing remarkably, to say the least. Apple and Google are leading the pack with Google notable catching up to Apple. Indeed, Google's Android platform is gaining much momentum with its recent announcement of having surpassed 10 billion downloads. As the fastest growing consumer segment in the history of commerce, mobile apps cannot be ignored. There are a lot of opportunities for businesses of all types to extend their marketing initiatives into the mobile app world, from in-app advertising to developing your own app to facilitate mobile transactions. Certainly, a number of considerations come into play when building the business case for going mobile. Perhaps the single greatest consideration among these is the choice of platform. The substantial numbers coming from Apple and Google suggest a healthy ecosystem among developers, which means that these platforms are likely here to stay for the long haul. While Blackberry and Windows are trailing now, only time will tell if the upcoming updates to their respective platforms will prove to be game changers. With that said, once an ecosystem is established, it will take something monumental to disrupt it.