NEW YORK and ATLANTA, Dec. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The total number of individual mobile apps in the marketplace is approaching a major milestone, hitting the 1 million mark within the next week, according to Mobilewalla, the search, discovery and analytics engine that tracks apps in real time.

Today the app count rose to 987,863 across all 4 platforms; an average of 2,000 apps enter the marketplace each day (with numbers higher at end of year for holiday rush). In the last 12 months, Apple apps grew from 338,000 to 589,148. Similarly Android apps went from 115,000 to 319,774. Please follow us on Twitter at #millionmobileapps.

Here is the breakdown:                                                                                 

"This is truly an astonishing accomplishment that cannot be ignored," says Anindya Datta, the founder and executive chairman of Mobilewalla. "The growth of apps is the fastest growing consumer segment in the history of commerce. The app race began in July, 2008 when the iTunes App store opened and Google followed with the launch of the Android operating system in October, 2008. Recently, app marketplaces have been launched for the Blackberry RIM and Microsoft Windows Phone platforms."

"In the early days most of the initial apps were "fun, indie" apps, such as the Doodle Jump game, one of the first mass-market apps to gain viral popularity and paved the entryway for other mass successes like Angry Birds," says Datta. "As app usage skyrocketed, the nature of the app ecosystem changed quickly – new apps were designed to improve our lives, disseminate news, weather and even crop data in places like rural India."

About Mobilewalla

Mobilewalla is a deep search, discovery and analytics engine incorporating breakthrough technology to help consumers, developers and advertisers navigate the highly fragmented mobile application marketplace. Mobilewalla offers a real-time, independent rating and ranking system for every app in every category available in Apple, Android, Blackberry and Windows 7 stores, plus a new ratings system for the developers who write these apps. Mobilewalla brings navigability and standardization to the mobile app universe for the first time. For more information, visit mobilewalla.com or download the free app in the Apple or Android stores.

SOURCE Mobilewalla