Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 05:06
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
It seems like it was only the other day that Apple announced the one billionth download from the App Store. Now the tally has reached 1.5 billion.
The App Store was opened by Apple as an online distribution channel for its own and third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Launched in mid July 2008 alongside the US debut of the iPhone 3G, more than 10 million downloads occurred during the first weekend of the App Store's operation.
Apple allows the distribution of free apps at no charge to the developer, but takes a 30 percent commission on sales.
Apple officials say there are 65,000 applications available from the App Store, which now reaches 77 countries.
"The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
"With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up."
OK, so it wasn't literally the other day that the one billionth download occurred - that was announced on April 24.
How many applications are there, and what might be ahead for the App Store? Please
read on.
