Apple App Store passes 15 billion downloads mark

Apple - very app-y at the moment
Apple - very app-y at the moment

Apple has revealed that its App Store has hit another massive milestone, announcing that it has reached the 15 billion downloads mark.

The App Store has been open since July 2008 and has been a massive success for the company – you only have to look at the copycat services that have spawned off the back of the store being released.

Currently, there are 425,000 apps on the Apple App Store, and there are 200 million iOS devices out in the wild.

Apple has done the maths for us and it means that on average 75 apps for every iOS device.

Exciting and successful

Speaking about the milestone, Phil Schiller of Apple said: "In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen.

"Thank you to all of our amazing developers who have filled it with over 425,000 of the coolest apps and to our over 200 million iOS users for surpassing 15 billion downloads."

Apple has every reason to thank the developers. For every paid-for app sold, it gets a 30 per cent cut.

To put the number of apps sold into context, Google launched the Android Market in August 2008 and it said in May that it has hit the 4.5 billion app mark. Google is thought to have around 100 million devices in the market at the moment.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.