Edible Apple

When Steve Jobs took the wraps off of the iPad 2 on March 2, he characteristically took some time to bash the competition. In one memorable tidbit, Jobs boasted of the 65,000 dedicated iPad apps available on iTunes. In contrast, Jobs claimed that there were only 100 apps written exclusively for Android 3.0 (Google’s tablet OS).

Jobs, as it turns out, was being far too generous.

Justin Williams recently took a look at all of the Android apps written for the Motorola Xoom or “specifically designed for a tablet.” As it turns out, there are only 20 of them. And sure, you can run apps on the Xoom written for Android handsets, but upconverting apps to take advantage of the bigger screen shouldn’t really factor into the equation. Besides, it’s not as if Apple counts standalone iPhone apps in its iPad tally just because they can run on both.

It’s funny that people are going spec crazy when comparing the iPad to competing tablets yet no one is really taking a look at the dearth of elegant software available for Android 3.0. People aren’t buying hardware to show off a fast processor and a lot of RAM. People buy hardware to create and consume, and in that regard, the iPad offers a user experience that simply can’t be beat. Try finding something like GarageBand, PhotoBooth, or iMovie on any other tablet currently out on the market. Hell, try finding something even remotely similar in 6 months.

Hit the break for a list of the extensive 20 apps written for Android tablets.

CNN App For Android
Electrum Drum Machine/Sampler
Speedx 3D
Grocery iQ – Tablet
Vendetta Online
Google Body
USA Today For Tablet
WeatherBug for Honeycomb
Flixster
AccuWeather
Thumb Keyboard (Phone/Tablet
DrawFree – Honeycomb Tablet
TouchDown for Tablets
DueToday
Opera
Draft Manager 11
QuickOffice
NY Times2
Conqu

Mind. Blown.

Who needs 65,000 apps when most people just use a few from this alluring list of 20?!