Angry Birds is a puzzle video game by Rovio, a developer based in Finland. It was initially released on the Apple iOS platform, where it became very popular very quickly and received a lot of media attention. The first Android version of the game was released last Friday, where it did so well that it crashed the servers on GetJar and had to be released in the Android Market earlier than expected.
This huge success has major significance for the Android platform, as it goes to show that Android can compete in the mobile application arena. While Android has been enjoying an increasing market share of late, analysts have always been unsure of how well third-party apps would go on this platform.
While Android might not be able to boast the huge numbers of mobile apps in the Apple store – 300,000 or more depending on who you ask – this news goes to show that consumers are more than ready to give Android a go if the right content is there.
People love the Angry Birds game, and these figures put some perspective back into the Android vs Apple debate. Consumers – as a whole – are much more interested in content than any vague notions of allegiance. If Android can stock up its app store by appealing to mobile application developers, it seems that the public are more than likely to follow.
Along with the iPhone, the iPad Touch, and now Android, Angry Birds is also available on the Nokia N900, as an exclusive iPad version, and on the Palm Pre phone running Palm web OS.