Android eBook App Aldiko Hits 20 Million Downloads
Aldiko is coming up on its 5th anniversary in June, and the developers will have something to celebrate. They just announced that the app had reached a new milestone.
The Aldiko app has now been downloaded 20 million times. Considering that this does not include premium purchases or pre-installed versions of the app, that is an impressive accomplishment.
Aldiko has a far larger install base on Android than either Barnes & Noble or Kobo, a detail I noted when Aldiko reached 15 million downloads in September 2013, and they're not the only indie reading app to best the majors. Moon+ Reader also reports downloads in the 10 million to 50 million range (according to Google Play).
Aldiko and Moon+ are two of the most popular reading apps on Android, second only to the Kindle app - and of course Google Play Books. But given that Google has arranged to pre-install Play Books on nearly all certified Android devices (I think it's a contract requirement), I'm not sure it's reasonable to include Google when looking at installs as a popularity contest.
While there is no doubt that Aldiko is a popular download, how many of those who have downloaded it use it as their main reading application?
I myself have downloaded it, but it is not my main reading application (I used it once to evaluate it). So while it does have a larger installed base than Barnes and Noble or Kobo, does it really have a larger user base?
So what app do you mostly use?
I use Aldiko. I’m not thrilled with it, page breaks are a bit odd, about 50% of the time I get less than a page of text, sometimes just a quarter of a page. But it does what I need, and it doesn’t require constant connection to wifi or perform a lot of “ET Phone Home” activity. I liked B&N’s reader but I couldn’t get it to play nicely with Calibre on a Cyanogenmoded nook HD.
I sometimes use Moon+ Reader, but out of habit I usually install Aldiko on new tablets.
And I’ve seen a lot of cheap tablets with Aldiko installed from factory.
Back in August 2013 (last update) it seems Aldiko came pre-installed on 20+ smartphones and tablets. This when they only has 13 million downloads, so could be substantially more by now.
I use it as my main reading app (and I downloaded it) because Aldiko will read all my book from all my sources.