Apple App Store Versus the Android Market , Which One is Better?

For more than a few years Apple's App Store was the only real competitive mobile phone marketplace in the business. While there were some others with a few thousand applications nothing competed in terms of number of applications and quality of applications as there are in the App Store. Recently with the explosion of Android device the Android Market is rapidly growing. Now there is a debate over which platform is better in terms of applications. Which one really is better.

The first factor in this debate is control. The App Store is extremely controlled. This means that only approved applications are allowed to be sold with certain applications and certain types of content to never ever be used. Android on the other hand is very open. This means that anyone can make applications and put them up for sale. This means that there is the possibility to have applications for things that Apple will never allow.

Refunds are another thing to consider. The Apps Store does not give a refund but the Android Market does. If you get an application and don't like it, you can return it that day with Android. This means you can test all sorts of applications and only keep the ones you like. Additionally, this is a guard against the fact that at times an application might not work because there are more than one type of Android phone.

In terms of number of applications, the App Store clearly wins. In terms of growth, Android is growing faster.

As far as stability is concerned, the App Store will always provide more stability because the applications are human reviewed.

One thing to consider is that all popular applications are going to be cross platform. Developers want to sell applications and don't care what platform you happen to be on.

Really it comes down to a matter of preference. The biggest factor is if you believe in closed or open systems to determine which one is better for you.