Top 10 Android Business Apps

"Gartner analysts predict that Android will become the world's second most popular smartphone platform by 2012, topping all platforms but Symbian. The research firm estimates that more than 31.8 million Android phones and 126 million Android-based portable products will ship in 2013.

"While I'm always a skeptic when it comes to analyst prognostications (you don't sell reports if you don't predict multi-million dollar markets), this forecast is well on its way to being spot-on. In a recent interview for the Guardian in the UK, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said 160,000 Android phones are being activated each day, up from 100,000/day in May and only 60,000/day back in February. That's an impressive growth curve, although actual devices shipped are still well behind the iPhone. To apply a betting metaphor, I'll take the under on Android catching iPhone in 2012.

"As Android grows, so does the importance of the Android Marketplace. Apps are what smartphones are all about, and while Android still trails there too, it's catching up even quicker than with the platform. Finding good apps, though, is still a bit hit and miss -- frustratingly so for a company that built its reputation on search. With scores of new apps flooding the Marketplace each day, I expect to be writing app roundups like this for quite a while."

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