In an attempt to close the “app gap” between Android and iOS, Google has recently announced plans to hire “dozens” of software engineers, product managers, user-interface experts and “others who have ideas for mobile apps.”

Currently, there are over 100,00 mobile apps in the Android Market with less than two-dozen of those apps developed in house by Google devs. Furthermore, most of those apps are Google-branded apps (Maps, YouTube, GMail, etc.). So this is a pretty big step by Google at improving their reach and closing the app gap with Apple. Google is also courting 3rd Party devs with incentives like getting their apps pre-installed on many Android phones.

Side Note: Personally, I think Google’s first order of business would be to greatly improve its own Marketplace on the web and give people the option to buy and “push” apps directly to their phones, but that’s just me.

So, if you’ve been thinking about getting into the mobile app development game, or have an idea for an app and want to pitch it to a notable company or a big-time development house…

What bigger name than Skynet Google?