Apple announced today that 2 billion software downloads have taken place in 12 months via it's App Store, the online catalog for iPhone and iPod touch software.
It reminds me of the old McDonald's marketing campaign, using the store signs to proclaim "over 1 billion [or whatever] sold!" Eerily, the McApple's press release echoes the current ad theme -- "I'm lovin' it"-- in the fast food chain's TV ads, with this quote attributed to Steve Jobs: "our users are clearly loving it.”
Steve, too, no doubt.
As with hamburgers, the numbers become a bit numbing: 85,000 apps, over 50 million iPhone and iPod touch users, and over 125,000 developers in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program.
To me, the most significant number was the rate of downloads, which is accelerating according to apple. Of those 2 billion, according to Apple, 25% (one-half billion) took place just in the last 3 months. That's a lot of software being used, or at least tried, by mobile users.
More details would have been welcome. I'm be curious to know what percentage are free vs paid, whether the "make money with free" model is actually working for those developers adopting it, how many of the apps are used once or twice and then discarded or ignored, and what kinds of apps users are relying on regularly.
Cox is a senior editor at Network World.
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