But climb it did. By September 2009, the Android Market passed 10,000 applications. By February of this year, Android Market share doubled again, positioning the Google Mobile OS to overtake Palm and the Market size grew again to include 19,897 applications. Today, the number of Android applications has reached 27,243 and there's no sign of its growth slowing down.

Although Apple still has far more mobile applications available for download, relative to the number of apps housed, Android is actually one of the fastest-growing mobile application stores on the market today. According to mobile analytics company Distimo, Android hasn't quite reached 30,000 yet, but in a statement last month from a Google representative, the company claimed there were "approximately 30,000 free and paid apps." Maybe they were just rounding up?

Based on the performance of iPhone apps, it's highly likely that we'll see more applications aiming for the lower end of that pricing spectrum than the upper end. But it will be interesting to see if any developers choose to charge a premium price - which isn't nearly as ridiculous as the App Store's $999.99 threshold - for their development efforts. Thankfully, according to the Market, "Once you've set a price for an application, you may choose to change it at any time."

The option of listing priced applications is currently only available to developers in the US and the UK. However, developers from Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain are slated to be allowed access to sell applications before April 2009. The Android Market hints at additional countries being added before the end of Q1, as well.

In related news, Australia developers just gained the opportunity to upload free applications. Singapore developers will soon have similar options.

For more information on uploading priced apps or purchasing them, visit Android Market support.

One of eBay's first partners to release a Selling Manager application - and a good example of the possibilities this platform provides - is UPS. Their WorldShip shipping software will be integrated directly within the eBay Selling Manager so sellers can manage shipments without having to leave eBay to do so. Other applications available at launch time include those from ecommerce developers Terapeak, HostedSupport, ahTEXT.com and Cloud Conversion.

Ebay's developer community, which includes some 87,000 members who have created over 13,500 applications, have been itching for a way to get better access to the 270,000 subscribers of eBay's Selling Manager service, an extra and formerly paid-access only area of eBay which many small-to-medium business sellers use. Now they can.

Why formerly paid? It seems that eBay wants to encourage sellers to check out these new offerings available within Selling Manager, so they're making the service free of charge. This is a win-win for all. Developers get greater access to sellers and sellers get access to better tools from the developers. 

The new Applications platform was built using theOpenSocial gadgets specification. Developers join the beta and begin developing their own apps by visiting http://developer.ebay.com/products/selling-manager-applications.

When adding the gadgets to iGoogle or Gmail, you won't have to enter in your Zoho account information in order to access your Zoho data. That's thanks to the oAuth support built in. In order to add a custom gadget to Gmail, you must first turn on a particular setting in labs which allows for this (Enable "Add any gadget by URL" in Labs).

Note: To learn more about custom Gmail gadgets, go here.

In social networks like Facebook and Orkut, the gadgets function more like applications. Once you click the link on the Gadgets page to add them to your profile, you'll be taken to a page where you'll need to enter in your account information before they will appear in your Applications list.

Finally, for OpenSocial compatible networks and applications, a link to an XML file is provided and for anywhere else you need a gadget, there's a generic embed code that can be used.

For anyone thinking of making the switch from Google Docs or Gmail over to the Zoho Suite, gadgets like these can make the transition easier as you'll be able to keep up with what's new even when you're still in your Google applications. And for those of us who spend entirely too much time in social networks, having these gadgets on hand means we won't miss out on the important information that matters most.

"You can build desktop applications with Windows Presentation Foundation, build web-only applications with ASP.NET AJAX and now the hybrid Rich Internet Applications with Silverlight."

The enhancements announced today for Silverlight include integration with .NET and support for dynamic languages - including Python and Ruby. Microsoft also announced new tool support for building Silverlight applications, with Expression Studio and the next edition of Visual Studio, code-named "Orcas".

Tell us what you think of the new-look Silverlight in this week's poll, below.

With 552 applications available at launch, Apple's push to get developers excited about developing for the phone has clearly paid off.

Some of the most interesting applications for the phone are the location-aware apps like Loopt. While there have always been location-aware applications for other phones with GPS capabilities, the iPhone might just give them the much needed push to finally become mainstream.

Other interesting - and free - applications include Newsgator's NetNewsWire, a native Facebook application, Twitterific (both in a free and premium version), a native AIM application, as well as a large number of games. As for paid applications, there is a surprisingly large number of dictionaries and phrase books available, as well as guidebooks from Frommer's and various maps and schedules for local transit systems.

Also available is Apple's much rumored Remote Application that allows you to control the music on your desktop from an iPhone or iPod touch, as long as you are on the same Wi-Fi network.

Missing from the line-up so far are any voip or video applications. There is also no native FriendFeed application available, yet.

Swimming with the Stream

There has, however, been a clear shift in the types of applications that are becoming more popular right now. The new emphasis on the stream is driving users to apps that are able to leverage the feed, while those apps that haven't adapted to this new reality yet will find it increasingly hard to get any kind of critical mass on the service.

On the other hand, as Zac points out, getting some of this functionality into applications now would definitely help putting some pressure on Apple to release this functionality quickly. After all, there are a good number of applications that just aren't very useful without being able to copy and paste (blog clients, text editors, email clients, etc.).

Zac also notes that he doesn't think that Apple is trying to squash OpenClip on purpose, but it does seem as if Apple is creating a bit of a moving target for developers. Given Apple's penchant for secrecy, every developer who is trying to write an application that gets relatively deep into the OS has to fear that Apple might just close off some necessary functionality without warning.

While the applications will not be for the iPhone, and therefor not direct competition to the App Store, a centralized location for mobile applications may lure potential customers away from Apple and its iPhone.

The alliance "aims to unite a fragmented marketplace and create an open industry platform that benefits everybody". The group will be conversing with W3C, the web standards consortium, to develop a standard for mobile application development. The group intends to make cross-platform development for a number a different mobile devices possible, with those applications available in one location, much in the same way that all Apple users rely on the app store.

The main question we have is, will this store also create the closed atmosphere that many complain about with the app store? Will there be a verification process for apps, giving the alliance the same sort of control Apple has, or will it be more of an open environment?

According to the release, the group aims to create "an ecosystem for the development and distribution of mobile and internet applications irrespective of device or technology," so on that end, things look good.

We would have to agree with Google, however, in noting that the number of different device technologies and platforms could make the dream of a unified mobile front against the dominant iPhone could just be a pipe dream.

Sharing Flash Apps on Mobile Devices

On the mobile side, Adobe and Gigya will give users the ability to share content on a wide variety of phones, including Windows Mobile and Symbian phones. Users who want to install a sharable application on their mobile phones will simply receive an SMS message with a link to the application. The service will automatically detect the type of device and deliver the right version to the user. Developers can also give their users the ability to share iPhone versions of their applications - though obviously those have to be native iPhone applications, as the iPhone doesn't support Flash.

Developers will be able to track the success of their applications through and Adobe AIR app that will allow them to measure distribution and customer usage. In partnership with Gigya, Adobe will also give developers the ability to assure installs through paid promotions and to monetize apps through cross-promotions.

Coming Soon: Easier Integration with Social Networks

Adobe also announced that it will launch another Flash Platform Service later this year that will allow developers to easily connect Flash applications written on top of Adobe's platforms with a number of social networks such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. Developers won't have to worry about the idiosyncrasies of a service's API, but will be able to write their applications on top of Adobe's social platform instead.

So in the spirit of giving good information (and not at all to combat ideas that Android is full of porn, I'm sure), Google will be adding content ratings to Android apps..

In preparation for the new ratings, starting next week, developers submitting new or updated applications will be required to provide a rating when they upload their apps to the Market. And by the time that all the ratings are visible to the public, all applications and games will have to be rated, otherwise they'll be automatically tagged as "Mature."

At 8 a.m. today, Twitter shut down basic authentication forever and, if your Tweetdeck or other Twitter app doesn't work, there's likely something you can do - update.

Twitter notes in its blog post that you can always review what applications you have granted access to your account by looking at the Connections section under your settings. If you haven't updated to the latest version of a Twitter app, you may find that it is broken and need to update for it to continue working.

As we explored when Twitter first started testing OAuth as a solution to its security woes, with this new system you will never have to cringe and give your Twitter password out to a stranger again. Another way to say that might be, never hand out your Twitter user name and password, ever again, as this switchover negates that process. And while it makes everything more secure, you'll want to be aware that clicking "approve" means you're giving that app carte blanche, read/write access to your Twitter account, so you should still weigh whether or not you want to give that particular application access before saying okay.

As for developers, the transition to OAuth from basic authentication has been a long time coming, with multiple emails sent out in the developers' group, so many apps are already using the new system. If you have somehow missed all the hubbub over OAuth, then that's what's happening, and Twitter will no longer allow third-party apps to use basic authentication.

We did notice some inconsistencies with the new layout in the developer sandbox version. For example, at least one app had a box appearing on the left side bar on all profile pages, with no clear indication of how to add and remove applications from that area -- or how many would be allowed that special treatment. We also thought it strange that to post to the wall, users are asked to use a box on the Feeds tab, while there is no way to post from the actual Wall page. That said, this is a beta sandbox page, and Facebook informed developers that, "some features are not necessarily enabled and others are still in flux."

When we introduced the new tabbed profiles in February, we theorized that the limited space for applications was an attempt to encourage developers to create more useful apps. Facebook said then that applications that "don't provide value and meaning for users" would face "challenges" under the new profile layout.

Now that the new profiles are (almost) live, what do you think? Do tabs make sense? On one hand you have extra clicks to get to certain profile information, and profiles are even less able to be customized by the user now. But on the other, there is a lot less garbage in the way of applications that users are forced to wade through to find the information they want -- profiles are now undeniably cleaner. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The launch partners for the Android platform include AccuWeather, TapJoy, and Jirbo. According to AdMob, the new advertising units will also be able to use Android's GPS to deliver location based advertising.

What About Google?

Google has shown relatively little interest in doing advertising for mobile applications so far. It will be interesting to see if the advertising giant is going to hand this market over to other providers, or if Google will release its own solution in the near future. So far, Google only lets advertisers target AdWord ads on mobile sites for the iPhone and G1, but doesn't provide a solution for mobile apps yet.