List of mobile app distribution platforms
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This list of mobile app distribution platforms includes digital distribution platforms, or marketplace 'app stores', intended to provide mobile applications, aka 'apps' to mobile devices. For information on each mobile platform and its market share, see the mobile operating system and smartphone articles. A comparison of the development capabilities of each mobile platform can be found in the article on mobile app development. For cross-platform development, see the mobile development framework. The mobile app article contains other general information.
Mobile app platforms
Summarize
Perspective
Native platforms
These application marketplaces, or 'm' are native to the major mobile operating systems. Anyway, the relative store APK can often be installed in other compatible systems without rooting a device, as it happens for Huawei AppGallery and stock Android.
There are 17 native mobile app distribution platforms currently on this list.
| app store name | date established | status | owner | available apps | download count | installed base | device platform | allows individual developers to publish | cut for developer per sale | developer fees (per year) | development tools (SDK) | free of charge IDE? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Appstore for Android |
22 Mar 2011 | live | Amazon.com, Inc. |
453,706 (Q2 2020) [1] |
unknown | unknown | Android OS (customised), Android, BlackBerry 10 |
yes | 70% | free [2] (previously: US$90 [2] (waive fee for 1st year, plus $50 AWS promo code)) |
Amazon Mobile App SDK [3] |
yes |
| Apple App Store (iOS / iPadOS) |
10 Jul 2008 | live | Apple Inc. | 2,200,000 (Jan 2017) [4] |
130 billion (Jun 2016) [6] |
800 million (Jun 2014) [7] |
iOS[l 1] iPadOS |
yes | 60–70% [8] originally 56–70% (varies depending on the country) [9] |
US$99 [10] |
iOS SDK, Xcode |
yes [11] (Xcode 6 is free on Mac App Store and Apple Developer) |
| BlackBerry World | 1 Apr 2009 | closed [12][13] | BlackBerry Limited (formerly Research In Motion) |
223,601 (26 Oct 2013) BlackBerry OS, PlayBook, and BlackBerry 10 apps [14] |
3 billion (May 2012) [15] |
75 million (Jan 2012) [16] |
BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, BlackBerry 10 OS[l 2] | closed for new app submission |
70% [17] |
free [18] |
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 Fun / Catalog | 20 Sep 2003 | closed [20] | Danger, Inc. / Microsoft | unknown | unknown | unknown | Danger OS | yes | 40% | free | Danger OS SDK[21] | yes |
| Firefox Marketplace |
6 Sep 2013 | closed [22] | Mozilla Foundation |
5,957 (Mar 2014) [23] |
unknown | unknown | Firefox OS | yes | 70% [24] |
unknown | unknown | yes |
| Google Play (formerly Android Market) |
22 Oct 2008 | live | Google, LLC | 3,500,000 (Dec 2017) [25][26] |
50 billion (Jul 2013) [27] |
over 2 billion (May 2017) [28] |
Android [29] |
yes | 70% | One-time registration fee: US$25 [30] |
Android SDK, Android Studio | yes |
| HP App Catalog |
6 Jun 2009 | closed | Palm, Inc. / Hewlett- Packard |
10,002 (Dec 2011) [31] |
108 million (Aug 2011) [32] |
2.6 million (Jul 2010) [33] |
webOS[l 3] | yes | 70% [34] |
free [34] |
Enyo | yes |
| Huawei AppGallery |
2011 [35] |
live | Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. |
220,000 (Nov 2022) 20,000 (Native - Jan 2025) [36][37] |
432 billion (Q4 2022)[38] |
1 billion (Oct 2024) [39][40] |
Android, Huawei EMUI,HarmonyOS |
yes | 100% for first 2 years, then 70%-90% flexible [39] |
free [39] |
Android SDK, HMS Core, HMS Toolkit |
yes (Huawei Quick App IDE and DevEco Studio) [41] |
| Microsoft Store (formerly Windows Store) |
26 Oct 2012 | live | Microsoft Corp. |
669,000+ (Sep 2015) |
unknown | 410 million Windows PC devices (Nov 2015) [42] 93 million smartphones [note 1] (Sep 2015) [43][44][45][46] [47][48][49][50] |
Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone | yes, with restriction [note 2] |
70% - raised to 80% if developer sales exceeds US$25,000 in a year | individuals: US$19, or free for student; companies: US$99. One registration fee for both 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 |
| Nokia Download! |
2006 | replaced with the Ovi Store |
Nokia Oyj |
unknown | unknown | unknown | Symbian (S60), Series 40 |
unknown | unknown | unknown | unknown | unknown |
| Nokia Store (formerly Ovi Store) |
26 May 2009 | closed, replaced with the Opera Mobile Store[53] |
Nokia Oyj |
120,000 (Aug 2012) [54] |
17 million/day (Oct 2012) [54] ~6 billion (Aug 2012) [55] |
885 million [citation needed] |
multiple [l 4] Symbian, MeeGo, Maemo, S40, Nokia X software platform |
yes | 70% | €1 [56] |
Qt 4 SDK,[57] Nokia Web Tools,[58] Nokia SDK for Java, Java ME,[59] Nokia X services SDK[60] | yes |
| OpenStore for Ubuntu Touch |
Sep 2014 [61] |
live | UBports (a democracy) |
many most Linux software applications will run on Ubuntu Touch |
unknown | unknown | open-source mobile phones | yes (anything packaged in the Ubuntu package database should run) |
— | free | Linux | yes |
| PureOS Software Center |
Nov 2017 ? [citation needed] |
live | Purism supported by The Debian Project (a democracy) |
quite many [62] most Linux software applications will run on PureOS |
unknown | unknown | open-source mobile phones | yes (anything packaged in the Debian package database should run)[62] |
0 | free | Linux | yes |
| Samsung Galaxy Store (formerly Samsung Galaxy Apps) |
Sep 2009 | live | Samsung Electronics |
unknown | unknown | over 1 billion (Oct 2020) [63] |
Android, Tizen, Windows Mobile, Bada |
unknown | unknown | unknown | unknown | unknown |
| Snap Store | 9 Dec 2014 [64] |
live | Canonical Limited |
unknown | unknown | unknown | Linux distributions |
yes | — | free | Snapcraft | unknown |
| Ubuntu Software Centre aka Ubuntu App Store |
17 Oct 2013 | closed, replaced by Snap Store |
Canonical Limited |
2,650+ (Dec 2015, incl. web apps & scopes) [65] |
unknown | unknown | Ubuntu Touch | yes | — | free | Ubuntu SDK | yes |
| Windows Phone Store (formerly Windows Phone Marketplace) |
21 Oct 2010 | closed, merged with the Windows Store[66] |
Microsoft Corp. |
400,000+ (Mar 2015) [67] |
9 billion (Mar 2015) [67] (105 per device) |
100 million (Jun 2015) [43][44][45][47] [68][69][70] |
Windows Phone[l 5] | yes | 70% | individuals: US$19, or free for student; companies: US$99 / unlimited paid apps, and 100 free apps submissions.[71][72] One registration fee for both Windows Phone Store and Windows Store. |
Windows Phone Developer Tools, includes specialty versions of Microsoft Visual Studio, Expression Blend | yes |
| date established | status | owner | available apps | download count | installed base | device platform | allows individual developers to publish | cut for developer per sale | developer fees (per year) | development tools (SDK) | free of charge IDE? |
- Notes
- 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)
- 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.[51] Microsoft verifies company accounts by contacting the company official, while this is not done for individual accounts.[52]
Third-party platforms
Third-party platforms are software distribution platforms which are used as alternatives to operating system native distribution platforms. Independent operating systems are software collections that use their own software distribution, customised user interface (UI), software development kit (SDK) and application programming interface (API) (except billing API which is related only to the application store).
There are 17 third-party mobile app distribution platforms currently on this list.
| app store platform name | date established | status | owner | available apps | download count | install base | device platform | cut for developer per sale | developer fees (per year) | developer console | development platform(s) (SDK) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appcircle App Distribution | 2021 | live | Appcircle Inc | unknown | unknown | unknown | Android and iOS | 0 | free | Yes | — |
| Appland | 2011 | live | Appland | 130,000 [73] |
25 million (Mar 2016) |
5 million (Mar 2016) |
Android and iOS | up to 70% | free | unknown | unknown |
| Applivery App Distribution |
Feb 2017 | live | Applivery Mobility Management[74] |
2,000,000+ (Dec 2020) [74] |
unknown | unknown | Android and iOS | 0 | free | Yes | Android SDK, iOS SDK |
| Aptoide | 17 Nov 2009 | live | Aptoide | 1,100,000 (Oct 2020) |
17.5 billion (Oct 2020) |
120 million (Oct 2020) |
Android and iOS | up to 75% | free | unknown | Android SDK, Java ME |
| Cafe Bazaar | Apr 2011 | live | Hezardastan Technologies | 160,000 (May 2019) [75] |
unknown | 40 million (May 2019) [75] |
Android | up to 70% | free | unknown | unknown |
| Cydia | Feb 2008 | live | saurik | unknown | unknown | 30 million | iOS | — | free | unknown | iOS SDK, Xcode |
| F-Droid | 29 Sep 2010 | live | F-Droid Limited |
4,002 [76] |
248 million (Mar 2015) [77] |
unknown | Android | — | free | unknown | Android SDK |
| GetJar | 2004 | live | GetJar, Accel Partners |
849,036 (Mar 2015) [78] |
3 billion (Mar 2015) [79] |
200 million users [78] |
multiple [80] Android, BlackBerry OS, Flash Lite, Java, iOS, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows Phone |
— | free [80] |
unknown | unknown |
| Handango | 2000 | closed | PocketGear | 190,000 (MMM 20YY) [81] |
unknown | unknown | multiple [l 6] Android, BlackBerry OS, Palm OS, PSP, Symbian, Windows Mobile |
≈42% | free | — | unknown |
| Handmark | 2000 | closed | Handmark | unknown | unknown | unknown | multiple [l 7] Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Java, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows Mobile |
unknown | unknown | unknown | unknown |
| MiKandi | 29 Nov 2009 | closed | MiKandi | unknown | unknown | 80000 (Dec 2009) [82] |
Android [83] |
unknown | unknown | unknown | unknown |
| Opera Mobile Store |
Mar 2011 | closed | Opera Software |
300,000 (Nov 2014) [84] |
45 million per month (Dec 2012) [85] |
unknown | multiple [86] Android, Java, Symbian, BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, iOS |
70%: Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile; 50%: Java [87] | free [87] |
unknown | Android SDK, Java ME, S60, BlackBerry SDK, Windows Phone Developer Tools |
| Pocket Gear |
1999 | closed | PocketGear | 140,000 (Jun 2010) [88] |
unknown | unknown | multiple Android, BlackBerry OS, Java, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows Mobile |
≈55% | free | unknown | — |
| Rootpk | 2022 | live | Rootpk | 700,000+ (Sep 2022) |
unknown | unknown | Android | 90% | free | Yes | — |
| RuStore | 2022 | live | VK (company), MinTsifry Of Russia | 21,000+ (Oct 2022) |
unknown | unknown | Android | unknown | free | unknown | — |
| Updraft App Distribution | 2014 | live | Apps with love AG / Moqod BV. | unknown | 350,000+ in 2022[89] | 15,000 Users in 2022[89] | Android and iOS | 0 | free | Yes | iOS SDK, Android SDK |
| Uptodown App Store |
Nov 2011 | live | Uptodown Technologies |
2,500,000 (Mar 2021) [90] |
450 million per month (Nov 2021) [91] |
unknown | Android | 80% | free | Yes | — |
| date established | status | owner | available apps | download count | install base | device platform | cut for developer per sale | developer fees (per year) | developer console | development platform(s) (SDK) |
See also
References
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