Is Google Outpacing Apple?

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) may still have the most popular smartphone and the most popular tablet, but it’s running out of places to be number 1, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is pushing hard to ensure that’s the case.

When Apple came out with the iPhone, it may have been able to steal the market with what some would call the first smartphone of its kind. With the addition of the app store and a massive stock of apps to choose from, Apple had great sway over the market.

But, since Google’s entry in the smartphone market, Apple has been losing its lead in many fields. Recently, Google’s app store has even matched Apple’s.

In the fourth quarter, Google managed to double the sale of applications in its online store, while Apple only boosted its revenue 20 percent. Back in October, Google boasted 700,000 applications, matching Apple’s count for that month, and Google doesn’t plan to slow the expansion of its market…