Apple To Reach 300,000 iPhone Apps: IDC

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (TheStreet)-- Apple(AAPL) iPhone apps will experience rapid growth in 2010, according to research firm IDC, with the number of applications tripling to reach 300,000.

Apple unveiled the third version of its iPhone operating system during the summer and recently announced that more than two billion apps have been downloaded on the iconic phone.

IDC, which released its 2010 tech predictions early Thursday, also expects the number of Google(GOOG ) Android apps to surge by a factor of five or more. Whereas Apple's App Store has over 100,000 apps, Google's Android market lags way behind.

The Androlib.com Web site, which tracks Android, says that Google offers about 20,000 apps in its online store. This figure is growing rapidly, with 3,544 new apps launched last month.

Google is hell-bent on extending its reach beyond desktops into mobile devices, and users are expecting a deluge of apps on Android phones such as Motorola's(MOT) Droid.

A slew of companies, including Motorola, Verizon(VZ), Sprint(S), and Deutsche Telekom's(DT) T-Mobile already offer phones powered by the Android operating system, and Google is working on its own phone.

Boosted by smartphones, netbooks, and the forthcoming launch of Apple's mysterious Tablet computer, IDC estimates that more than one billion mobile devices will be accessing the Internet by the end of 2010, competing more and more with traditional PCs.

With the economic crisis still visible in the rear-view mirror, IDC's research spells good news for the tech sector as a whole. The analyst firm predicts that worldwide IT spending will grow by 3.2% in 2010, returning the industry to 2008 levels of about $1.5 trillion.