A recent post on Nielsen’s blog shows some interesting information about Android app usage. While the first part of the post talks about the seemingly obvious fact iOS and Android users prefer apps over Web, the second part is far more interesting…and possibly disturbing for developers.

They mention that while there are hundreds of thousands of apps on the Android market, only the top of the charts really account for the majority of app usage. There are currently over 250,000 apps available and the top 50 of those account for 61 percent of the time spent in-app (43 percent in the top 10 alone). The post points out that the remaining 249,950+ apps are all trying to get a piece of that remaining 39 percent.

Why is this?

249,950+ apps suck?
Obviously this isn’t the issue, but there is a fair share of worthless apps in the Market. There are clear positives and negatives to allowing virtually every app developed on to the store. One positive is that Android can claim a faster growing and more variety-filled collection, but how many of those are worth even reading the description? And how do decent apps get noticed in the large pile?

Android users aren’t interested in new apps and games?
Doubtful, but it appears that the majority of users are not taking advantage of what’s out there. As developers or publishers, what can we do to get our new, hot app noticed?

The Android Market app is horrible?
Well, it used to be, for sure. The recent update to the app makes it an entirely different place to search for apps. Plus, with new storefronts like Amazon offering Android apps, we may see an uptick in sales and app usage.

The concern here for the developer is that any app you release has little chance with the Android audience. A focus on promotion is critical for any new developer, but getting your app into user’s hands will still be chore.

One thing to note is that Nielsen, for whatever reason, does not have similar stats for iOS. It would be interesting to see if that device struggles with the same issue, but from all other indications iOS has much more app-happy user base.