Apple today announced that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store by iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide.
“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months—this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”
Apple App Store downloads:
[Thanks to MacDailyNews reader “Nathan” for the graphic.]
iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries worldwide can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: Bloodbath.
Damn! That’s a lot of apps.
Wonder how the Windows Marketplace is doing…
I have 28 apps on my touch. Many I use, others not so much. It’s amazing how little I use Safari with individual news outlets having writing apps.
9 months for 1 billion
18 months for 3 billion
— gaining speed.
silverhawk makes a good point…I too am using Safari much less because of apps written for many of the sites I frequent. Although this is probably putting only a small dent in Safari’s web traffic count, it will likely become more pronounced as computing becomes more mobile
Some people will quibble as to how many of those downloads were free apps but you know what? It doesn’t matter. Each app, be it paid for or free, is an interaction with the device and a participation in the iPhone/iPod ecosystem and that’s what matters.
Three Billion gives a good indication of just how much interest owners are taking in their devices and this translates into future sales growth as we find out just how much influence the app store has on persuading people to go with Apple’s devices.
Didn’t some monkey say apps. aren’t important?
Well monkey boy the problem is that a lot of people who bought all those apps are never going to buy windows mobile because they just don’t work there….. So think about that Balmer!
That’s a good point by you guys about safari and apps usage. Over the past few years, we’ve seen internet advertising take off so much that it’s unthinkable to see any kind of TV or press ad without a line saying http://www.thiscompany.com on it somewhere.
How long will it be before tthe web address is replaced with something that looks like: iTunes.mycompanyapp on all adverts?
I just got a Toch recently and the app experience Apple has set up is incredible. It reminds me of the old days using ftp to access software vaults for my old Classic, with lots of rubbish, but lots of gems as well, and most take up minimal storage. A new golden age of computing is upon us.
I wonder how many of those downloads are updates…
Apelock, you won’t have to wade through the apps, you just have to keep your ears open for review sites like toucharcade.com, they’ll make noise whenever some really really cool apps/games are out, and tell you straight up when something is crap.
To Rockanrolero: updates are not taken into account (Steve Jobs said it when he announced 2 billion downloads last time), so this is really 3 billion new app downloads.
The release states 1 billion apps since Sep 09.
If we say 100 days, to round things out, that is 10,000,000/day
or about 417,000/hr
or about 17,000/min !!!
If an App accesses the interwebs, it uses the Safari engine to do so, doesn’t it?
McDonalds took 30 years to get to a billion.
My apps chalked up 350k over the last 6 months. I love contributing to the bloodbath!
Re: McDonalds took 30 years to get to a billion.
That’s a lot of horses!
You kinda can’t not download apps if you own an iPod touch or an iPhone. Even I’ve downloaded seven apps, and I’m the type that doesn’t even bother trying anything unless I’m really, really interested. (My wife, who is exactly the opposite, has filled two-and-a-half screens.)
——RM
Roughly 9 months for the first billion, 5 months for the second billion, and 3 months for the third billion. If you care to extrapolate ceteris paribus, 4 billion should arrive in another 2.6 months or so.
The variety of apps at a relatively low price and the ability to try out many apps for free is making the iPod touch a favorite of both younger kids and teens. I have noticed that the average price of game apps appears to be increasing. The app pricing was mostly in the range of $0.99 to $1.99 about a year ago, but many apps are now $2.99 to $4.99. That might put a slight damper on the growth trend.
Big deal since 99% are iFart apps.
http://www.bing.com When it comes to decisions that matter, Bing & Decide