Facebook has been playing this game for a while. They've also had Facebook Camera since mid-2012. It was clearly meant as a drop-in replacement for the iOS camera app, that just made it easier to upload your photos to Facebook.
Very interesting theory! Google must not have realized this because all of the google apps are in a single folder. Still, my home screen is 4 out of 20: Google folder, Gmail, Chrome and Authenticator.
Random question: Is Authenticator secure from Google themselves? I thought "yes," but after thinking a little more it seems like the answer is "maybe not."
What's to prevent an app like Authenticator from uploading its cryptographic seeds to Google's servers?
I was wondering why a company would invest resources into creating an app like Authenticator, which seems to have no obvious path toward monetization. But if the company who writes Authenticator can also spy on its users, then that might be the answer.
For most smartphones the number of icons that fit on a home screen is independent from the device type or the operating system on the device.
Different Android-based operating systems come with different UIs, and installing a new home screen UI on any of them is as easy as installing Angry Birds.
I know I shouldn't feed the trolls but let's all be clear iOS still has a large percentage of web traffic, app downloads, and money spent in the app store/in-app purchases and it's lead it actually growing.