Android's Secret Weapons: Bird Claws, Bunny Feet and Talking Cats

September 20, 2011 · by Anna Rohleder

Android has gotten very big very fast. It has now become the dominant smartphone platform in the US and looks set to overtake Symbian soon in Asia and Europe. The global marketshare is now close to 48%:

Disclaimer: This pie chart is not scientifically accurate nor does it contain pie. It is however drawn by hand. Statistics from Reuters.

One reason for that popularity is the apps – especially games – that are available from the Android Market. But which ones among all the thousands out there rise to the top? Today we offer a quick overview of the most successful Android apps and what they may (or may not) have in common.

Excluding free apps like Facebook, Google Maps, YouTube, and Opera Mini, the top-trending free apps on Android market aggregated from several sources for the past week were:

Angry Birds: If our society were suddenly wiped out by an asteroid hit, archaeologists of the future would likely believe ours was a huge global cult dedicated to appeasing unhappy bird deities.

Bunny Shooter: Like Angry Birds, only with pink rabbits

Dragon, Fly!: A swiping game in which a dragon flies over a landscape of undulating hills

MP3 Music DownloadPro: A search application that lets you find and download free music

Talking Tom Cat 2: When he's not purring or drinking milk, Tom repeats back what you've said to him in a voice just annoying enough to think he is trying to make fun of you - at which point you can punch him

The top five paid apps were:

Robo Defense: Robots, towers, defend. That's it. Probably one thing too many for most men to keep track of

Paper Camera: An app that applies special effects such as cartoon/sketch/comic book/styles to photos you take with your phone your camera

Beautiful Widgets: An assortment of useful widgets such as date, time and weather

Cut the Rope: To release the candy desired by the little monster Om Nom, you must cut the ropes of the title

PowerAmp music player: Plays a variety of file formats with options for different musical styles and effects

So what do all these games and gadgets have in common? Either they've gotta be useful – or they've gotta be fun.

At the same time, a successful app has to interact with and take advantage of the phone as a device. In other words, because it's a handset and not a gaming console with a separate screen or a computer with its own keyboard, good apps will usually:

take advantage of the touch-screen interface, and require rolling, swiping or shooting things with finger gestures
utilize the phone's internal gyroscope, and either involve building or stacking unstable elements or in the case of driving games, require the player to navigate steep turns
make use of the phone as an audio device to either play music or videos or generate interaction with talking characters

Now, if there were only a mad scientist Android developer app to make a supreme mashup of all those apps together – what might that look like? A music player that talks to you in an angry bird voice? A game where you have to drive a paper camera up the robo defense tower? Could you fly your dragon head-on into YouTube?

Give us your weirdest ideas for hybrid apps in the comments!

Readers' comments 15

Left under the original article, as archived.

z@h3kTuesday, September 20, 2011 1:59:55 PM
BugfixerTuesday, September 20, 2011 2:24:02 PM
Bye bye Android, hello bada. Bada OS will be open source early 2012. Now i hope Opera will be released for bada 2.0.
LucaTuesday, September 20, 2011 3:00:26 PM
I don't think bada can beat Android just becoming open source. Google company is too strong and android is already too good
Jose CamarilloTuesday, September 20, 2011 5:31:34 PM
bada cannot get on this deal. There is already three different OS; Blackberry, Android and iOS. There is no room for bada.
WildEnteTuesday, September 20, 2011 6:27:22 PM
and what does this tell us about a good strategy for Opera to get more market share for their browser? Games as widgets, unite apps, and extensions maybe?
BugfixerTuesday, September 20, 2011 8:03:32 PM
Originally posted by joemaster62:

bada cannot get on this deal. There is already three different OS; Blackberry, Android and iOS. There is no room for bada.

Bada has beaten Windows Phone 7 in market share. Bada will be very strong in the future. Bada 2.0 is a good step in the right direction and a good plattform for good apps like Opera, Skype and such.
slackwrdaveWednesday, September 21, 2011 12:52:02 AM
I like a good homemade pie chart.
Dark FurieWednesday, September 21, 2011 10:51:58 AM
Originally posted by joemaster62:

bada cannot get on this deal. There is already three different OS; Blackberry, Android and iOS. There is no room for bada.
Funny. The current mobile market share around the world is distributed in the following order:
Android,
Symbian,
Blackberry/Playbook,
iOS,
Bada,
Metro UI.

Forgetting three of the main OS doesn't make them any less important. This is still a six horse race and while iOS, Bada and Metro UI make up the bottom of the stable, you forgot to include Symbian who is still number two in the world and still being supported and expanded. There is room for more than three operating systems in the world and to think otherwise is incredibly naive and buys into the marketing that the leaders like to put forward when a new kid on the block threatens them.

Bada is indeed a player, but it's not much of one at the moment. With the right support and pushing, Samsung could take Bada into the top three. Unfortunately Samsung like to innovate but never support devices or OS enough to see them succeed as much as they should. A shame considering their hardware is usually the best around and makes their devices hackers dreams. If the firmware were to match they'd be a force to be reckoned with.
Anton DiazWednesday, September 21, 2011 1:46:39 PM
«Dragon, Fly!»

Developer tools?
AnadroxWednesday, September 21, 2011 3:53:18 PM
Yo-ho-ho and the bottle of rum..

Topicstarter is a very good painter!
Cutting SpoonWednesday, September 21, 2011 11:20:54 PM
The ZENONIA games are okay....although most "quests" are really just MMO-style fetch rewards.

Was very pleased with Spectral Souls in tablet mode on my Echo.
KarenThursday, September 22, 2011 1:42:35 AM
Windows 7 Phone > Android
Julian Salas LópezThursday, September 22, 2011 2:17:47 AM
Robo Tom Cat Shooter : the nemesis of any bird, including Angry Birds

No matter which mobile OS Opera is the most widely used Browser
Adonis @ my.opera /friendspartyworldSunday, September 25, 2011 10:27:36 AM
@Yanita: java is widespread too.
Jose CamarilloTuesday, September 27, 2011 3:20:30 PM
Im sorry for failing to mention Symbian, but I live in the US and Symbian is not relevant in the US. I think WebOS is even bigger in the US than Symbian.