Apple’s App Store has reached two billion downloads. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has been promoting both its iPhone and its App Store as rivals have launched new smartphones and online app stores.
With more than 85,000 apps available to 50 million plus iPhone and iPod touch customers and 125,000 developers, Apple said its store continues to be a success.
Three weeks ago Apple said its App Store, which is available in 77 countries in more than 20 categories, including business, lifestyle and games, had reached 1.8 billion downloads. The new data show Apple downloads rose 200 million in less than a month.
“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate, with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”
“It has absolutely accelerated,” said Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokesperson, about the downloads. “In the first nine months we had one billion and then 1.5, and we are at 14 months since launch with two billion.”
Apple said it is still way ahead of its rivals’ app stores that have rushed to market. Since Apple’s App Store was launched in July 2008, companies such as Palm, Microsoft and Google have launched application stores.
Finnish phone maker Nokia has launched its Ovi Store, as has Research In Motion with its App World for BlackBerrys, and LG Electronics with the its Application Store. Last month, Samsung also announced it, too, will open an app store.
Despite the number of app stores available, Apple continues to proclaim that no competitor’s store has reached the level of its App Store. “Tell me any other app…