Google's Android Market now offers more free apps for download (134,342 apps), than Apple's App Store for iPhone (121,845 apps). This is great news for Android consumers, although Android developers probably aren't too thrilled. Furthermore, the number of paid apps on the Android Market is about one third of the total number of paid apps available in the Apple App Store for iPhone, according to app store analytics provider Distimo.

The analytics firm predicts that in five months, the Android Market will be the largest store in terms of number of apps, followed by the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad, Windows Phone Marketplace, BlackBerry App World, and Nokia Ovi Store, assuming all the app stores maintain their current growth rate. Interestingly, Windows Phone Marketplace will pass Nokia Ovi Store and BlackBerry App World before it even celebrates its first birthday – that is quite an achievement given the saturation of the app market.

Distimo says it only saw moderate growth in most of the app stores over the course of the past several months, but overall growth picked up again in March. Here are the app stores in decreasing order of growth: Mac App Store, Windows Phone Marketplace, BlackBerry App World, Android Market, App Store for iPad, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog, App Store for iPhone, and GetJar.

Google's Android Market passed the 200,000 apps mark in December 2010 while Apple's App Store passed the 300,000 apps mark in September 2010. Because Android is open, the platform's users can download apps from more than one app store.

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