Android Market reaches 10B downloads, offers 10 cent apps

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced that the Android Market has reached 10 billion app downloads globally, almost double the 6 billion it measured 6 months ago.

Click here to zoom in on this chart.

Google reported taking about 21 months to reach its first billion downloads. Android Market users now download over 1 billion apps per month.

In celebration of this milestone, Google is offering 10 premium apps discounted to 10 cents each, every day for the next 10 days. The apps available as part of the promotion include SoundHound, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD, Minecraft - Pocket Edition, SwiftKey X Keyboard, Endomondo Sports Tracker, Great Little War Game, SketchBook Mobile, Fieldrunners HD, Color & Draw for kids:phone ed and Paper Camera.

In September, research firm Ovum forecast that overall mobile app downloads (across all platforms) would top 18 billion this year, a sharp increase from the 7.4 billion downloaded in 2010. Ovum predicted that 8.1 billion of those downloads would be from Android users.

Android now powers 46.3 percent of all U.S. smartphones, up 4.4 percentage points since July 2011, according to a new report from comScore.

For more:
- see the Android blog
- see this Gizmodo article

Related articles:
Report: Android Market plagued by malware threats
Study: European users trump U.S. on Android app downloads
Google Music storefront goes live on Android Market
Android Market: 37% of published apps are later removed
Android Market application downloads surpass 1B