In just under 100 days since Apple had announced that two billionth iPhone apps were downloaded from the iPhone App Store, the company has announced that they are already on to the next milestone.
In a statement released by Cupertino today, the company has said that iPhone and iPod touch users have now downloaded three billion apps from the App Store.
This underlines the phenomenal growth that the company has witnessed when it comes to the download of third party apps from the App Store. It was only eighteen months back that the first app went on sale. Speaking about the milestone, Steve Jobs noted that the App Store had revolutionized the smartphone market. Also, apparently taking a dig at Google who are launching their iPhone competitor Nexus One today, Jobs said that the growth of the App Store has ensured that competition cannot catch up with Cupertino anytime soon. In his words:
"Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months -- this is like nothing we've ever seen before, The revolutionary 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"
The App Store has proved to be a highly lucrative cash cow for the company. In an article written back in September of last year, we had estimated Apple's revenues from the App Store to be anywhere between $240 million to $440 million a year. As we had noted back then, these are still speculated numbers since Apple has declined to give the share of paid apps among the numbers all along. Nevertheless, even a conservative estimate shows some highly impressive numbers.
What do you think? Do you agree with Steve Jobs that the growth in the number of iPhone apps and their downloads alone ensure that competitors like the Droid and Nexus One cannot catch up with Apple? Please tell us in the comments.
Being first sucks!
what about being second?
being third is….okay?