In April of 2011, Google knew the limit of 200,000 apps to reach four months later became the milestone of 300,000 apps removed. The rapid growth of Android apps is mainly due to the increase of free apps in the Android Market. For 68 percent of the apps do not need to be paid to install. More and more developers opt for the freemium model in which a portion of the app is free and additional functionality can be purchased through an in-app purchasing.
The figures are from Distimo has only looked at the number of active apps in the Market. Many apps are removed by Google or by the authors if they prove to be harmful or superfluous. To the total number of apps would ever be looked at Google's download store may well be that the Android Market, Apple App Store has already overtaken.