"It is likely that the more rigid application submission requirements [at Apple] prevent developers from publishing multiple trial or low quality applications, whereas publishers in the Android Marketplace a lot of market testing, trials, demo and malware content," he noted.

Nearly 80% of apps removed from Android Market were free ones, Mikalajunaite said, which could mean that Android Market publishers put more effort into paid apps that will kept longer in the store.

The Windows Phone Marketplace had only 13% of its apps deactivated, but Mikalajunaite noted it is a comparably young store just being explored by developers.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at , or subscribe to . His e-mail address is .

in Computerworld's Internet Topic Center.