Apple App Store Tops 15 Billion Downloads

Whether you think of Apple as makers of the trendiest and best performing mobile products on the planet or view Steve Jobs' 'Evil Empire' with the same contempt that Boston Red Sox fans have for the New York Yankees, Apple's doing well either way. Actually, that's a bit of an understatement. Despite a growing army of Android users, Apple today announced to the world that more than 200 million iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users worldwide have downloaded over 15 billion apps from the App Store.

"In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen," said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "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."


Of those 425,000 apps, more than 100,000 are native to the iPad, Apple says, which means they account for a nearly a third of all apps in the App Store. To date, Apple says it's paid out $2.5 billion to developers, a huge incentive to keep coding apps for iOS even as Android continues to attract more users.