Fierce Mobile Content just published some great info on the number of apps on the top app markets. The info comes from Distimo’s report on app metrics. To quote the article

Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Market now offers more free mobile applications than Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) rival App Store, according to new data published by app marketplace analytics firm Distimo. Android Market now touts over 134,000 free apps, compared to almost 122,000 free selections in the App Store. The increase of free Android apps is one facet of Android Market’s overall growth: According to Distimo, at its current pace Android Market is expected to offer more total mobile  applications than any other store approximately five months from now, followed in descending order by the App Store, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone Marketplace, Research In Motion’s (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry App World and Nokia’s (NYSE:NOK) Ovi Store.

For now, the App Store remains in front with over 330,000 applications for the iPhone and iPod touch, with the iPad App Store offering over 75,000 tablet-optimized solutions. Android Market is next at more than 206,000 apps. From there, the decline is steep: Ovi Store checks in at almost 30,000, BlackBerry App World is close to 27,000 and Windows Phone Marketplace trails at close to 12,000. “Only moderate growth was observed in most of the application stores over the course of the past several months, however overall growth picked up again in March,” Distimo notes. “The App Store for iPhone is the largest store in terms of all applications available–however, it was among the slowest growing stores in terms of relative growth [last month].”

Distimo adds that despite increasing competition from Android and BlackBerry tablets, the iPad enjoys a sizable lead in the category. Daily downloads in the Top 100 overall paid and free applications for iPad combined exceed 500,000, corresponding to daily revenues of about $400,000, excluding in-app purchases.

The mobile industry is never dull. RIM has just acknowledged that their ecosystem is not appealing to developers. And where the developers go, the mobile industry goes. Get all the details with this release.

More info from mobile developers on the ad revenues associated with iAds and AdMob.  All in all, the jury seems to be on the side of free apps. But will it last?

The SoC Summit started yesterday with a series of interesting talk, including one given by Geogad. The promise of SoC (System on Chip) is to continue to standardize electronics, this time at the level of large system blocks both on the chip and in the library and driver software. It will help build new powerhouse of tech and in addition to more powerful devices. Because of the advantages of SoC, the new devices will be built from reusable semiconductor blocks and software code that can lead to faster design and construction times for mobile devices.

SoC will result in better, more advanced devices with a faster time-to-mmarket. Mobile has gotten even more interesting.

Geogad hosts two local Silicon Valley meetup called the Informal Android Developer Meetup and the Informal iPhone Developer Meetup. New mobile developers at these meetings often ask which mobile platforms are worth their time to learn. Sometimes it’s a matter of money and the perception of which app stores have the best sales. Other times, it depends on a developer’s previous programming background.

TheFierceDeveloper newsletter actually addressed this question with more substantial info provided by a marketing report from VisionMobile. The most interesting part of the report to me was the estimates of the length of time required to learn a new mobile platform. To quite FierceDeveloper quoting VisionMobile,

…according to the report, coders require 15 months or more to figure out Symbian, compared to an average of 7.5 months across rival platforms. Android is considered the easiest platform to learn, with 22 percent of respondents claiming they absorbed its intricacies in under a month.

It is nice to see that some of the platform are relatively easy for new programmers to pick up. It should make for an exciting experience for mobile apps.