• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, July 15, 2010

Google's Android Market has crossed the 1 billion download mark nearly two years after the application storefront was launched, according to analytics provider AndroLib.com. That total is still well behind the 5 billion app downloads that Apple boasts for the iPhone and iPod.

But with 160,000 Android-powered devices being activated each day, the Android Market is gaining traction with consumers and developers. It now offers 92,000 titles and AndroLib projects; that amount will hit 100,000 by the end of July. (The App Store offers 225,000). The 10, 847 new games and apps to the Android Market through the first half of July were more than the total for all of April and two-thirds of the 15,288 added in June.

About 61% of the apps are free and 39% paid -- but as with Apple's App Store, the vast majority of downloads are free. The growth of Android Market, however, goes back to the proliferation of Android devices, of which there are now some 60 models across different manufacturers and wireless carriers. The latest entry is Verizon's Droid X, which hit stores today.

Android as of May had 13% of the U.S. smartphone market, nearly even with Windows Mobile and up from 9% three months ago, according to data released last week by comScore. Android was also the only smartphone platform to gain share among the top five over the last three months. Apple slipped a percentage point to 25.4%.

To further expand its app selection, Google earlier this week launched App Inventor, a free software tool that lets anyone create their own Android apps using a drag-and-drop interface. The app do-it-yourself kit requires no programming experience and Google says users can create the simplest apps in minutes. While apps built with the tool will not initially be available through Android Market, a company spokesperson said that eventually some could be offered through its app store.