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April 23, 2009

Apple hits 1 billion iPhone apps

Posted: 06:02 PM ET

The billionth iPhone app was downloaded from Apple's App Store shortly after 5 p.m. ET today. All of those App Store downloads took place in only 9 months, so that's about 5.5 million iPhone app downloads per day, on average.

1 billion iPhone apps downloaded

It's clear that the iPhone and its many applications are a key part of our culture and the way people communicate with each other these days. TechCrunch has some more on the speed of the iPhone global takeover (and a hilarious McDonald's spin-off headline: "1 billion served"):

Last summer, Apple sold one million 3G iPhones worldwide across 21 countries in the first 3 days on sale. During that same time, iPhone users made 10 million app downloads from the then newly launched iTunes App Store.

The Silicon Alley Insider also wrote about the pace of downloads - and the sheer volume. By their estimate, the average iPhone user has 30 apps:

With about 30-35 million iPhone and iPod touch devices in the market, that suggests the average person has downloaded about 30 apps. That's a lot! Most mobile users download zero apps on their phones.

The race to 1 billion stalled the iPhone app store for a bit this afternoon, tuaw.com writes:

The iTunes Store was showing up as unavailable for several people off and on throughout the afternoon. Even Apple itself jumped the gun a little bit by having its after 1 billion page already available early Thursday, in addition to the counter in iTunes showing the 1 billion mark before the official counter on Apple's website.

In honor of the milestone, I pulled in a few lists of the best iPhone apps. What do you all think of them? Tell us in the comments.

Current most-downloaded list: from Apple
Top 11 apps: from Time
Most popular: from Wired
Best apps of 2008: from Gizmodo

How do you use iPhone apps? What’s your favorite? Tell us about your iPhone app experience!

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Filed under: Internet • iPhone


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coolhand   May 14th, 2009 11:33 am ET

I understand that the public was the first to file a suit in order to make the copyright law more clearly defined but apple's counter-suit goes way beyond the realm of necessity and can only be considered malicious greed. I have been an avid Apple user since my first computer, a mac LX, and have long-time been a supporter of apple. I have touted the superiority of the os and defended the higher price of your computers, but not any more. My word of mouth campaign has made a 180 degree turnaround. Apple has proven that they are only about greed and profits no different from microsoft. I will now sneer at mac users just as I had Microsoft users of the past. You should be ashamed of your business ethics and personal greed. I was on the fence with your Itunes product and some of the issues with it but the whole Iphone apps issue has made me sick and I can't believe I ever praised what has now become a monster. Maybe Gates having part ownership of apple is like a worm, and involvement with intel and at&t a diseased core. Thank goodness for open source, Linux, GNU. I hope that programmers who once left you and your operating system alone because of your innocence now create terrible viruses to cripple you. Rotten to the core, the juice may be all that is salvageable.

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Are you a gadgethead? Do you spend hours a day online? Or are you just curious about how technology impacts your life? In this digital age, it's increasingly important to be fluent, or at least familiar, with the big tech trends. From gadgets to Google, smartphones to social media, this blog will help keep you informed.

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