Apple App Store Reaches 1.5 Billion Downloads In 1-Year

Apple's App Store, which seems like has been around since the beginning of times, has just recently hit its 1-year date of birth. The Apple App Store has been one of the most successful services that Apple has ever provided and the most successful App Store to date. Apple announced today that its customers have downloaded more than 1.5 billion, yes billion applications since the store opened slightly over a year ago.

What started out as only a few hundred applications has grown to include over 65,000 different applications which really shows what more than 100,000 registered developers in the iPhone Developer Program can really do!

"The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality", said Steve Jobs, Apples CEO. "With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up."

Jobs states the last sentence because other competitors are trying to tap into the huge market place of App Stores. Palm jumped on board, so has Nokia, Blackberry and many others as well. I think Jobs said it perfectly and I don't think anyone will catch up to Apple in terms of the number of applications in a store and download volume.

Back in March there was a detailed report that proved and continues to prove that Apple is miles ahead of the competition when it comes to their App Store. The App Store is probably one of the best marketable features of the iPhone for Apple and AT&T here in the United States, and why shouldn't it be? It allows for incredible applications to be developed and sold or giveaway for free to millions of customers. The marketability is endless.

While the App Store has certainly been great in terms of success, it also has had its downfalls as well. We've seen some Apps banned for being questionable in terms of legality but we've also seen some great apps banned for no apparent reasons. Then we have issues with certain apps because AT&T's exclusive contract will not allow such features to run on their network, like certain streaming media applications. Apple's tie to AT&T in the United States I believe is holding back Apple and certainly is limiting its marketability in the United States.

Despite the issues with the App Store, I've got to hand it to Apple - they've done a marvelous job with the store and it's truly remarkable to reach 1.5 billion downloads. Great Job, Jobs!