Google approaching 700,000 Android apps on Play store

Google is rapidly closing in on Apple's app count as the two firms vie for mobile market supremacy after the firm revealed there are now 675,000 Android apps available.

This is just behind Apple which announced last week during its iPad Mini launch that it now has 700,000 applications available across its iOS platform including 275,000 dedicated apps for its iPad tablet.

Google announced its latest figures on a specifications page for the Nexus 4 device that comes running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the next version of the operating system, which it also unveiled two new Nexus tablets.

This included a 3G-enabled 32GB version from Asus and a 10in version designed by Samsung as Google continues to challenge Apple in both the smartphone and tablet markets.

The rounded up figure of 700,000 for each platform is far ahead of Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform, which was officially unveiled on Monday by the Redmond giant as it hopes to improve its standing in the mobile market.

At present there are around 120,000 apps in the Windows Store, although the firm has been keen to tout that it has the majority of the major apps available such as Kindle, LinkedIn, Facebook and games such as Angry Birds.

Furthermore, the number of apps is no guarantee of quality, with security issues regularly plaguing the Android store and putting users at risk from malware and spam threats.