Apple Tops 3 Billion App Store Downloads

Apple announced today that more than 3 billion games and applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch have been downloaded from the iTunes App Store since its launch in July of 2008. The App Store currently hosts more than 115,000 downloadable applications from major publishers and independent developers. The 3 billion reported downloads includes both free and paid content. The figure doubles Apple's last reported milestone of 1.5 billion downloads, as revealed in July of 2009. Since then, the storefront has expanded its reach to iPhone and iPod Touch owners in 77 countries. In a statement issued today, Apple co-founder and chief executive officer Steve Jobs said that the 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.” A number of application storefronts for competing mobile devices have cropped up in the 18 months since the App Store's debut, including BlackBerry Apps World, Google's Android Market, and Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile. To date, none of these services have announced download totals or sales figures.