Google Play reaches 25 billion downloads

Forget McDonald’s – Google is the one boasting about billions and billions served today.

The search giant has reached a brand new milestone, with 25 billion app downloads. Apple climbed to the same point about six months ago.

Notably absent from the announcement, of course, is how many of those Android apps were free downloads and how many actually generated revenue for Google and developers.

The total number of apps in Google Play now stands at around 675,000, also close to where the Apple App Store is.

The iPhone has about a one-year head start on Android, so it’s not surprising that it has more apps. But there is still very much a sense that if you want to be a successful app developer, you should go to iOS. Android is an afterthought.

As a result, the hundreds of thousands of apps that exist on the Android Market are largely less professional or ambitious than those on the App Store.

In this day and age, apps are everything, so even though Android can boast a pretty impressive quantity, it needs to focus more on its quality. However, continuing to reach these major milestones will continue to make the case to app makers.

Some of the major developers and publishers out there are looking at Android as their platform of choice, including Sony. In addition, there are new projects like Ouya that use Android to explore new opportunities. The future looks pretty bright.