Google Inc.’s Android mobile phone platform is already making inroads into the mobile applications market Apple Inc. dominates via its iPhone, a research firm told Bloomberg.

Google’s phone software could offer as many as 150,000 applications by the end of 2010, San Francisco-based Flurry Inc. said. Though it only has 12,000 apps now, compared to iPhone’s more than 100,000, it’s grown at a faster rate. That pace puts it at 100,000 to 150,000 by the end of next year. Apple would still have a big lead, at an estimated 300,000 by that time.
A recent report from ABI Research forecast that mobile app downloads will reach 5 billion by 2014, almost double the 2.9 billion this year, and that Android’s market share will rise from 11 percent to 23 percent.
Apple has an 1,800-employee operation in Elk Grove. The company ships numerous products from the site.
[Thanks: http://www.bizjournals.com]