The App Store Hits Two Billion Downloads

One has to wonder, given the growth of App Store downloads for the iPhone and iPod touch, if the App Store could ever pass McDonald's in terms of those "served." Obviously, it would seem eating would outdo even the iPhone, but still, you never know ... at any rate, on Monday, Apple announced App Store downloads have surpassed 2 billion, and applications are now at 85,000.

To imagine the pace at which downloads are happening, remember the numbers Apple gave at the new iPod announcement on Sept. 9th, Apple reported that the App Store had over 75,000 applications and 1.8 billion downloads. So in 19 days, the App Store has added over 10,000 apps and users have downloaded an additional 200 million applications. That's more than 10 million downloads a day during that timespan.

More numbers: last December, Apple announced the App Store had reached 300 million downloads. So over the last 9 - 10 months the downloads have nearly shot up sevenfold.

Apple also added that there are more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide and over 125,000 developers in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program. In a statement, CEO Steve Jobs said:

“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone. The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”

Wait, "I'm lovin' it," isn't that an old McDonald's slogan? Another McDonald's coincidence. It's time to start a pool on the next billion downloads, we think.