March saw amazing growth in the Android Market, which added an amazing 9,308 new applications. What's even more interesting is that the size of the Android Market has doubled since January.Google's Android Market hit the 20,000 app milestone right around the beginning of 2010. Today, the Android market has closer to 42,000 applications. So far in April, the Market has added 2,230. In March, the Market swelled by 9,308, in February it grew by 5,532, and in January some 4,458 apps were added.

The Android Market's 42,000 apps may still pale in comparison to market leader Apple, which has somewhere north of 140,000 apps, but the sudden surge in growth indicates at least one key thing.

Android is catching on. Big time.

I don't think it is too much of a stretch to correlate the Android Market's sudden growth spurt with the success of the Motorola Droid, which Verizon has been selling like hotcakes since its launch in November. Sales of that handset have exceeded one million units, and it has helped Android's mindshare grow exponentially. That success has spurred developer interest in the platform.

It helps that Android handset are widely available in the U.S. Each of the four major wireless network operators in the U.S. offers at least one Android handset. Android handsets are available in a wide variety of form factors and at attractive price ranges.

As more Android handsets are primed to hit the market, the platform has no where to go but up.

[Via AndroLib]