List of mobile software distribution platforms

This list of notable digital distribution platforms for mobile devices includes digital distribution platforms that are intended to provide mobile apps to mobile devices. For information on each mobile platform and its market share see the operating systems section of mobile operating system and smart phone. A comparison of development capabilities of each mobile platform can be found in the article mobile development. For cross-platform development see multiple phone web-based application framework. The article mobile software contains other general information.

Operating system-native platforms

These application market places are native to the major mobile operating systems.

Name	Established	Status	Owner	Available apps	Download count	Installed base	Device platform	Allows individual developers to publish	Developer's cut per sale	Developer fees	Development tool(s)	Free of charge IDE?
Amazon Appstore	22 March 2011	Live	Amazon.com	330,000 (March 2015)[1]	Unknown	Unknown	Android OS (customized), Android	Yes	70%	US$99/year (Waive fee for first year, plus $50 AWS promo code[2])	Amazon Mobile App SDK[3]	Yes
App Catalog	6 June 2009	Closed	Palm/HP	10,002 (December 2011)[4]	108 million (August 2011)[5]	2.6 million (July 2010)[6]	webOS[l 1]	Yes	70%[7]	Free[7]	Enyo	Yes
App Store	10 July 2008	Live	Apple	1,400,000 (725,000 native to iPad) (January 2015)[8]	100 billion (June 2015)[9]	800 million (June 2014)[10]	iOS[l 2]	Yes	56–71% (varies depending on the country)[11]	US$99/year[12]	iOS SDK, Xcode	Yes (Xcode 6 is free on the Mac App Store and Apple Developer.)
BlackBerry World	1 April 2009	Live	BlackBerry	223,601 (26 October 2013) BlackBerry OS, PlayBook and BlackBerry 10 apps[13]	3 billion (May 2012)[14]	75 million (Jan 2012)[15]	BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, BlackBerry 10 OS[l 3]	Yes	70%[16]	Free[17]	BlackBerry 10 Native SDK (with full POSIX and Qt support), HTML5 Qt4 SDK, Android (via BlackBerry Android Tools SDK), Adobe AIR SDK, BlackBerry OS SDK	Yes
Download Catalog	1 October 2002	Closed[18]	Danger, Inc./Microsoft	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Danger OS	Yes	40%	Free	Danger OS SDK[19]	Yes
Google Play	22 October 2008	Live	Google	2,280,000 (July 2016)[20]	50 billion (July 2013)[21]	over 1 billion 30 day active (Sept 2015)[22]	Android[l 4]	Yes	70%	US$25[23]	Android SDK, Android Studio	Yes
Firefox Marketplace	6 September 2013	Live	Mozilla Foundation	5,957 (March 2014)[24]	Unknown	Unknown	Firefox OS	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes
Nokia Store	26 May 2009	replaced with the Opera Mobile Store[25]	Nokia	120,000 (August 2012)[26]	17 million/day (October 2012)[26] ~6 billion (August 2012)[27]	885 million	Multiple[l 5] Symbian, MeeGo, Maemo, S40, Nokia X software platform	Yes	70%	1 €[28]	Qt 4 SDK,[29] Nokia Web Tools,[30] Nokia SDK for Java, Java ME[31], Nokia X services SDK [32]	Yes
Ubuntu App Store	17 October 2013	Live	Canonical	2,650+ (December 2015, incl. web apps and scopes) [33]	Unknown	Unknown	Ubuntu Touch	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Ubuntu SDK	Yes
Windows Phone Store	21 October 2010	Live	Microsoft	400,000+ (March 2015) [34]	9 billion (March 2015)[34] (105 per device)	100 million (June 2015)[35][36][37][38][39][40][41]	Windows Phone[l 6]	Yes	70%	US$19 for individuals, or US$99 for companies /year/unlimited paid apps and 100 free apps submissions Or Free for students [42][43] One Registration fee for both of Windows phone Store and Windows Store.	Windows Phone Developer Tools, includes specialty versions of Microsoft Visual Studio, Expression Blend	Yes
Windows Store	26 October 2012	Live	Microsoft	669,000+ (September 2015)	Unknown	410 million PC devices (November 2015)[44] 93 million smartphones[note 1] (September 2015)[35][40][41][45][46][47][48][49]	Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone	Yes with restriction[note 2]	70% that is raised to 80% if developer sales exceeds US$25,000 in a year	Individuals: US$19/year or US$0/year for student, Companies:US$99/year . One Registration fee for both of Windows phone Store and Windows Store.	Visual Studio 2013 or higher for Windows 8.1. Visual Studio 2015 or higher for Universal Apps. Windows App Studio	Yes
Name	Established	Status	Owner	Available apps	Download count	Installed base	Device platform	Allows individual developers to publish	Developer's cut per sale	Developer fees	Development tool(s)	Free of charge IDE?

Notes

1. Including Windows Phone 8.0, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile. Excluding Windows Phone 7, because although it is still live, so is no longer supported and never be able to take advantage of all types of applications (e.g. universal apps)
2. Microsoft classifies developer accounts to individual accounts and company accounts. Individual accounts are restricted from using specific app capabilities and cannot list desktop apps in Windows Store, while company accounts do not have this restriction.^[50] Microsoft verifies company accounts by contacting the company official, while this is not done for individual accounts.^[51]

Third-party platforms

Third-party platforms are software distribution platforms which are used as alternatives for operating system native distribution platforms. Independent operating systems are software collections which use their own software distribution, customized user interface, SDK and API (except billing API which is related only to application store).

Name	Established	Status	Organizations	Available apps	Download count	Install base	Device platform	Developer's cut per sale	Developer fees	Developer Console	Development platform(s)
Appland	2011	Live	Appland	130,000[52]	25 million (March 2016)	5 million (March 2016)	Android and iOS	Up to 70%	Free	Unknown	Unknown
Aptoide	October 2010	Live	Aptoide	311,000 (April 2015)	300 million (March 2013)	10.5 million (January 2013)	Android	up to 87.5%	Free	Unknown	Android SDK, Java ME
Cydia	February 2008	Live	saurik	Unknown	Unknown	30 million	iOS	N/A	Free	Unknown	iOS SDK, Xcode
F-Droid	2010	Live	F-Droid Limited	1,878[53]	248 million (Mar 2015)[54]	Unknown	Android	N/A	Free	Unknown	Android SDK
GetJar	2004	Live	GetJar, Accel Partners	849,036 (March 2015)[55]	3 billion (March 2015)[56]	200 million users[55]	Multiple[57] Android, BlackBerry OS, Flash Lite, Java, iOS, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows Phone	N/A	Free[57]	Unknown	Unknown
Handango	2000	Closed	PocketGear	190,000[58]	Yes	Unknown	Multiple[l 7] Android, BlackBerry OS, Palm OS, PSP, Symbian, Windows Mobile	≈42%	Free	N/A
Handmark	2000	Closed	Handmark	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Multiple[l 8] Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Java, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows Mobile	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
MiKandi	29 November 2009	Live	MiKandi	Unknown	Unknown	80,000 (December 2009)[59]	Android[60]	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Opera Mobile Store	March 2011	Live	Opera Software	300,000 (November 2014)[61]	45 million per month (December 2012)[62]	Unknown	Multiple[63] Android, Java, Symbian, BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, iOS	70% — Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile; 50% — Java[64]	Free[64]	Unknown	Android SDK, Java ME, S60, BlackBerry SDK, Windows Phone Developer Tools
PocketGear	1999	Closed	PocketGear	140,000 (June 2010)[65]	Yes	Unknown	Multiple Android, BlackBerry OS, Java, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows Mobile	≈55%	Free	Unknown	N/A
Name	Established	Status	Organizations	Available apps	Download count	Install base	Device platform	Developer's cut per sale	Developer fees	Developer Console	Development platform(s)

References

1. Amazon App Store for Android. Retrieved 11 March 2014
2. "Amazon Developer Services". amazon.com.
3. "Amazon Mobile App SDK". amazon.com.
4. "App Stores:Distimo". Retrieved 24 June 2011.
5. "Official App Catalog App Gallery : Precentral.net". Retrieved 22 January 2011.
6. "comScore Reports July 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share". Retrieved 15 September 2010.
7. "Developing and Distributing with Palm: Developer Program Details". Retrieved 4 June 2010.
8. Steve Ranger (January 16, 2015). "iOS versus Android. Apple App Store versus Google Play: Here comes the next battle in the app wars". ZDNet.
9. Nathan Ingraham (June 9, 2015). "Apple's App Store has passed 100 billion app downloads". The Verge.
10. "Apple has sold more than 800 million iOS devices, 130 million new iOS users in the last year". Retrieved June 2, 2014.
11. "App Store Pricing Matrix".
12. Apple Inc. "iOS Developer Program - Apple Developer". Developer.apple.com. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
13. The App World Analytics Website. AppWorldReport.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
14. "Three Billion and Counting". BlackBerry Developer Blog. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
15. Motorola il iDEN (25 June 2010). "RIM Q1 2010 Results - 100 Millionth BlackBerry Served". Intomobile.com. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
16. Duryee, Tricia (19 August 2010). "BlackBerry Takes Larger Cut Of Developer Revenues In Updated App World". mocoNews. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
17. "BlackBerry App World FAQ". Research In Motion. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
18. "» Downloadable Content Goes Away March 2nd - Sidekick 4G / Sidekick LX 2009 / Sidekick 2008 / Sidekick 3 / Hiptop 3". Hiptop3.com. 1 March 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
19. "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 27 February 2009. Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
20. Number of Android applications - AppBrain. AppBrain.com (22 July 2016). Retrieved on 22 July 2016.
21. Google Play Passes 50 Billion App Downloads. Mashable.com (18 July 2013). Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
22. "There are now 1.4 billion active Android devices across the globe; Google Play reaches 1 billion active users". AndroidBeat. 29 September 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
23. Developer Registration - Android Developer Help. Support.google.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
24. Search Results | Firefox Marketplace. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
25. "Microsoft and Opera Software sign agreement to extend Opera Mobile Store to more Nokia phones". Opera Press Releases (Press release). Opera Software ASA. November 18, 2014. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
26. "Nokia Developer - Global reach statistics". Developer.nokia.com. 22 August 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
27. "Nokia store passes 11 million downloads a day". All About Symbian. 10 January 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
28. Nokia Developer - Publishing your app. Publish.ovi.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
29. Nokia Developer - Qt. Developer.nokia.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
30. Nokia Developer - Nokia Web Tools. Developer.nokia.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
31. Nokia Developer - Tools centre. Developer.nokia.com. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
32. Microsoft. "Nokia X Platform Overview". nokia.com.
33. "uApp Explorer". uappexplorer.com. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
34. http://wmpoweruser.com/microsoft-reports-50-active-windows-phone-user-growth-over-the-last-year-400000-apps-in-the-store/
35. Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Declined 1.7 Percent in 2012. Gartner.com (13 February 2013). Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
36. "Gartner Says Asia/Pacific Led Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales to Growth in First Quarter of 2013". gartner.com.
37. "Gartner Says Smartphone Sales Grew 46.5 Percent in Second Quarter of 2013 and Exceeded Feature Phone Sales for First Time". gartner.com.
38. "Gartner Says Smartphone Sales Accounted for 55 Percent of Overall Mobile Phone Sales in Third Quarter of 2013". gartner.com.
39. "Gartner Says Annual Smartphone Sales Surpassed Sales of Feature Phones for the First Time in 2013". gartner.com.
40. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2996817
41. http://wmpoweruser.com/microsoft-now-sold-100-million-windows-phones/
42. "Registration info". microsoft.com. Microsoft.
43. "Unifying Developer Registration: Windows and Windows Phone". Building Apps for Windows.
44. 23.03% of 1.775billion PC installed base is about 410million. ( 1.7billion PC installed base in August is calculated as: Windows 10 is on more than 75M devices on 26th Aug (after 28 days) http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/08/26/windows-10-now-on-75-million-devices/ By linear aprox is 88M Windows 10 devices on 31st Aug (after 33 days). Base on estimation 5,21% of Windows 10 devices on 31st Aug by http://www.netmarketshare.com/, its mean about 1.7billion PC devices on market. This also corresponds to https://www.gartner.com/doc/1602818/forecast-pc-installed-base-worldwide and http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2791017 and also corresponds with 1.65Billion two months back (with 25M monthly increment) (http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/24/technology/windows-microsoft-sales/). On 30th Nov is reported 23.03% share of Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 by http://www.netmarketshare.com/. )
45. http://blog.adduplex.com/2013/01/windows-phone-device-stats-for-january.html
46. "Gartner Says Annual Smartphone Sales Surpassed Sales of Feature Phones for the First Time in 2013". gartner.com.
47. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3061917
48. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3115517
49. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3169417
50. "Account types, locations, and fees". microsoft.com. Microsoft.
51. "Opening a developer account". microsoft.com. Microsoft.
52. "Appland Web Page". Retrieved March 29, 2016.
53. List of known apks in the F-Droid repository — Run "awk '{print $2}' | uniq | wc -l" to get the number — 30 January 2014
54. Downloads data— 11 March 2015
55. "GetJar - Mobile - The Worlds Biggest Open App Store". GetJar. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
56. "Company - GetJar Developers". GetJar. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
57. "GetJar - Mobile - The Worlds Biggest Open App Store". getjar.com.
58. http://assets.handango.com/marketing/collateral/HandangoOverview.pdf
59. Jordan, Jon (9 December 2009). "Android adult-only app store MiKandi launches on a natural high". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
60. Matyszczyk, Chris (29 November 2009). "Droid does, iPhone doesn't: The porn app store". CNET. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
61. "Microsoft and Opera Software sign agreement to extend Opera Mobile Store to more Nokia phones". Opera Press Releases (Press release). Opera Software ASA. November 18, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
62. "A new and improved Opera Mobile Store". Opera Press Releases (Press release). Opera Software ASA. February 27, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
63. "Opera Publisher Portal". opera.com.
64. "Software Distribution Agreement" (PDF). Opera Software. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
65. http://corp.pocketgear.com/about.html

Other References

1. "Palm Developer Network". Developer.palm.com. 29 August 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
2. Apple Inc. "iOS Dev Center". Developer.apple.com. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
3. "BlackBerry App World Vendor Support". Na.blackberry.com. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
4. "Android Developers". Developer.android.com. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
5. Nokia Developer - Your idea. Our tools. Developer.nokia.com (22 February 1999). Retrieved on 24 November 2013.
6. Windows Phone 7
7. Handango's Partners
8. "Handmark - OneLouder Apps". handmark.com.