Apple announced Tuesday its App Store reached the 3 billion download mark, or one billion downloads since September. The Cupertino, Calif. company passed 2 billion downloads for the iPhone and iPod touch just three months ago.
The new figure means 10.1 million apps per day were downloaded over the last 99 days, reports said. That improves on 6.9 million downloads per day set between April and July, 2009.
“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months — this is like nothing we’ve seen before,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said. Jobs called the App Store “unlike anything else available on other mobile devices” with “no signs of the competition catching up soon.”
In July, on the App Store’s one-year anniversary, Apple announced more than 1.5 billion downloads. In late 2009, the service had more than 100,000 apps available for iPhone and iPod touch users.
The App Store’s success caught many insiders off-guard, including early investors. Apple would have been happy for only a fraction of the 2 billion downloads reported in October.
The App Store could host 300,000 applications in 2010, tripling the current number, analyst predict.
[Via Barrons and AppleInsider]
