Apple's App Store hits a billion downloads
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Apr 23rd 2009 5:06PM
posted Apr 23rd 2009 5:06PM
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Who cares
Hipsters.
Obviously the people who click on the article to read it, then log in, then submit a reply to the article.
(I.e. YOU)
Paul A. Chapel and his 5 friends.
I'm curious.
How many Apps are there, and can someone provide a breakdown of the types available?
/Paul bait
If you don't care, then why do you care to post?
At least try to make the Apple Hate a little less obvious next time, eh?
@bighap: You cared enough to make a comment.
Chris Ziegler and probably his father Zig.
You know how they have the "most commented postings" list at the end of the year and it seems that every year, Apple-related articles seem to be 8 out of the top 10? "Who cares," "Apple sucks," and "iCrap" comments like this are the reasons why! If you don't like it, don't comment. You fuel Apple's popularity! Keep it up!
Investors.
@Dave95
Could you please make your slobbering love affair towards Apple a little less obvious.
Notice how Apple fans here on Engadget all simultaneously started using the word "hate" over and over again? If you have the slightest disagreement with the party line and you are a hater, starting a hatefest, etc. You would occasionally see the word being used, but here I see it being used 3 seperate times by three seperate people.
Either this means that these are all the same person posting with different aliases, a new argument is being put forth because some cracks are showing in the usual Apple arguments (quick, they are catching on that Macs have problems just like PCs do), somebody is being paid to start a viral campaign, or it is one big coincidence.
But then again, they are just full of peace, love, and happiness when an article is posted about Windows, PCs, Zune, WinMo, etc. right?
The Winner.
"Notice how Apple fans here on Engadget all simultaneously started using the word "hate" over and over again? If you have the slightest disagreement with the party line and you are a hater, starting a hatefest, etc. You would occasionally see the word being used, but here I see it being used 3 seperate times by three seperate people."
It is a recent talking point that emerged around early March. It's different people for sure. They just sound the same because Apple fans like to adopt certain talking points/phrases. The problem is they never alter the wording, so they sound 100% the same even though they are two different people posting it.
"But then again, they are just full of peace, love, and happiness when an article is posted about Windows, PCs, Zune, WinMo, etc. right?"
Heck no. These guys wrote the textbook on "hate" when it comes to any platform that isn't Apple's. They are hypocrites to the extreme. But to them hypocrisy is no vice.
Once they saw that people became fed up with their special brand of BS, and started to push back, they had to change rhetoric to something that makes them look like innocent victims. That is where the term "Apple hater" started to creep in. It a silly thing on their part to do when they will moments later be on another story doing the exact same thing!
@nohone-
Cracks? 1 BILLION downloads. If you hate on that, then you're a hater. Plain and simple.
I do, seeing as I wanted to win all the prizes for the 1,000,000,000 app downloaded.
Unfortunately, I was out when they hit a billion =(
@Look
I have been hanging around here for a couple years now (less and less with some of the recent trends), but within even the past week the "hate" word has become much more prevalent as their current mode of attack.
@Joseph:
Windows have sold over 1 Billion units of the OS. If you hate on Windows, then you're a hater. Plain and simple.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-Windows-Installed-Base-to-Cross-1-Billion-Mark/
@Greg
The winner isn't the person who downloaded the 1,000,000,000th app, that was just the countdown. If you downloaded apps (free and paid) between the time Apple started the countdown and the last one, then you were automatically entered into the drawing to win the prize. Up to 25 entries a day. There was also an online form you could submit once daily. They will announce the winner shortly. It's not all lost yet, but you'll soon be let down. Don't worry.
Tony
1 billion served. Can I get fries with that? You could have at least 'shopped in a Golden Arch. :)
I'm willing to bet that at least a billion Palm and WM apps have been downloaded (maybe BB and Symbian too).
It's also worth pointing out that the 1 billion apps threshold was passed earlier than Apple is reporting, because there's a hella lot of jailbroken iPhones out there.
@Tony
From the official rules:
5. Sweepstakes:
The prize will be awarded for the entry (either through an app download or through the non-purchase online entry) sent immediately following the download of the 999,999,999th app.
Ditto. The only people who care are Mactards who are jerking off to the announcement. That said I'm just as impressed with the G1's sales....as in I don't care. 1B sales just means there are a lot of people who purchased fart generators out there.
As a developer, I care. It makes the iPhone an even more attractive platform. I have the chance to make massive sales, even with piracy.
As a user, I also care. It shows the plaform is developing and establishing itself, and that my device will only grow in it's capabilities from here on. For example, even Microsoft employees are hinting that Office will come to the iPhone. The platform has developed so much over it's competitors, it is no longer in Microsofts best interests to keep Office as a WinMo exclusive (I.e they think they will make more money porting their apps to the iPhone than they will competing with it). That's the kind of thing I'm excited about as a user.
I seem to remember people saying how much better WinMo was because it had more apps. Watch how the number of apps suddenly becomes an invalid or misleading metric now the figures don't go their way.
I've never understood why people get so excited about numbers rolling over cool large points. Year 2000, a billion app downloads? Great, who cares?
I'd rather hear about rates and whether the velocity of app downloads is increasing (second derivative) or something instead of just some scalar.
::shrug::
It isn't that I don't care about a billion downloads, it's just that it doesn't convey anything really interesting.
Ugh, more historical revisionism, and double-standards, from Look_Around_You.
Funny, isn't it, that you let "iTroll", "Apple fanboy" and even "douchebag Kool-Aid drinking Apple fanboy iTroll" go without complaint, but when someone replies with "hater" then all of a sudden, you're upset! Double standard, mate. And you say that Apple fans are the hypocritical ones!
In psychology, they call it "projection", when you see your own character flaws in other people.
And before you succeed in your attempt to rewrite history, let us just state the simple (and irrefutable) fact - the "hate" was started by the anti-Apple crowd, not the pro-Apple crowd. It was not March this year that it all started, it was two years ago, when Apple's success in the PMP business meant they started getting headlines.
There were a few Apple fanboys (there have always been, along with a very similar number of MS fanboys, and linux fanboys, etc) but there were also many anti-Apple people who pretended to be pro-Apple and wrote stupidly outrageous comments that were simultaneously bait, *and* helped create the (now commonly-held) notion that pro-Apple people were all trolls.
THAT was when the hate started, with the words "Kool-Aid" and "iTroll" appearing dozens of times on each comment page. After a year and a bit, eventually the pro-Apple people started calling the anti-Apple trolls "haters" as a direct response to "iTroll".
So, 18 months of hate from the anti-Apple crowd, no problem with you guys, you seem to support that, but then the pro-Apple people start using the word "hater" and you all go ballistic. That says not a lot about the pro-Apple crowd, but it says a lot about you.
Its funny how many people complain about engadget being apple-biased, yet most readers (or comments) are window fanboys/apple haters. why don't windows fanboys just go over to some other blog like gizmodo or cnet.
i care .. does that answer your question?
sweet
Yeah, pretty cool considering the time it was achieved.
iMOB ONLINE
123751495
Keep Dreaming.
Fanboy tiem...
Aww, its too bad, I was trying to get the billionth... with a free app... :P
When does iFart 2: Wet and Squishy come out?
I'm curious how many of those billion downloads were of funny/useless apps (i.e. fart apps) and how many were of useful ones.
@james
Useful to you is probably not useful to me, etc... so keep your Caucasian yap shut.
Obiouvsly my "Keep Dreaming" go to the haters ms-fanboy.
why would anyone with a phone care how many apps had been downloaded on it? It affects the user in no way.
It does affect the user, more apps being downloaded means more apps being creatged.
And more developers wanting to develop for Apple's booming App Store.....
They will probably do the same as they did with the iPod + iTunes. Announce every so often how many Apps they've sold, build up more confidence, get more developers developing killer native Apps, enlarge that ecosystem (Blutooth, Accessories will surely help), and the rest is history......
So Apple is basically saying "Thank you for making us over a billion dollars."
I'm sure a large percentage of those downloads are free apps.
But also a large percentage will have been worth more then $1.
Probably balances itself out.
Apple doesn't even get all of the money though. Only a small part of it actually. I bet all those apps costed a lot less than $1B anyway.
Apple keeps 30%.
Which considering they have sold 70+ million devices (iPhones and Touches) makes it a pretty good deal for the developer that writes a good app.
sorry - 37 million.
ohh dammm i wish i could be the billioth has anyone seen all the stuf you get if your that lucky one
actually it doesnt matter if you were the billionth. you could still win. :) anyone whos downloaded an app since the contest started is eligible.
Yeh tell me about it - and some spotty faced 13yo has got all that gear - lucky kid
I wonder is winmo already hit a billion in total already in terms of applications downloaded. Harder to measure since it's not a centralized store.
Man 10,000$ gift-card itunes! Man how many frakkin' music!
people who were feverishly downloading apps to repeatedly enter themselves into the drawing to win a macbook pro (along with a $10,000 itunes gift card and a time capsule)
This has neglected to mention the Android app market, which is burgeoning with very useful, fun and mostly *free* apps.
And I quote: "Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, webOS, BlackBerry"
See where it says Android? And that's great, it's "burgeoning". Let me know when it gets over 30,000 apps. Also, you make it sound like there are no useful or free apps on the App Store. Do you actually believe that?
@Zak: Actually, I'll sheepishly admit that I forgot to add Android into the list when I first wrote this... I added it in after the fact!
When I read the article on the main engadget page at 5:20, Android was not mentioned... thus the comment.
I have no idea about the availability or usefulness of free apps in Apple's app store since I've never had exposure. Never claimed to either.
My bad then, Android was there when I looked at it. The rest of my comment still stands. :)
+10pts. for Chris Ziegler & his father Zig. Thanks for the honesty!
Well the good side of this is that it's made the average consumer aware that there are apps out there for phones, hopefully raise awareness indirectly of the other Mobile OS's, anyways well done Apple.
I'm still not sure why people are so happy about a service that basically limits what you can put on the device you paid for. You know, you could buy Windows Mobile and Palm applications from just about anywhere.
Oh, how about tethering your iPhone to your PC, is there an app for that? Oh sorry, no, it doesn't make us any more money so NO!!!
because there is no malware on the iphone app store. Sometimes you have to give up freedoms for protection.
You should probably complain about at&t when it comes to tethering, I seriously doubt Apple cares one way or the other.
No one cares about any of this, except for the ludicrous prize they're giving/gave away to some insanely lucky person.
Rape kit?
Just knock on the OSX department's door. They've had a supply to use on themselves since the early 90s.
Not to mention the baby shakers...
And yes... It's like the billion songs downloaded from iTunes store... anyone still remembers what they gave away?
(a bunch of iPods I believe... what for? oh... darn, I picked up Thursday iPod instead of Friday's!)...
It's pretty foolhardy to think that an app store's download count isn't directly relevant to the user base. A more popular app store is going to attract more developers, which means a wider selection of apps (and more importantly, high-quality apps) are available to you.
I dunno about "quality" apps. From everything I've seen, the majority of the apps in the store are just little gimicky ones or programmers attempts to 'get rich quick.'
That's true as long as each platform only allows the user to get apps from its one central app store. Since this is true only of the iphone...
So this means that each and every person that has an iphone had to download 84 apps. Considering the average person only has two apps on their iphone at a time...those are Apple's numbers not mine...I'd say that means there's a lot of crappy apps out there.
Or given the chance people will download almost anything as long as it's free.
well actually Apple sold 37 million iPhones + iPod touches, that means an average of about 27 apps per person. I've downloaded 27 apps for sure. But I haven't used any of those apps for more than a day. Unless it's a game that took me a little longer.
Where do you get the "average person only has 2 apps on their phone at a time"? I have 8 pages worth of apps...
FAIL
84 apps per iphone is ignoring the number of Ipod Touches... How many of those have been sold?
And where did you figure out that 'the average person only has two apps on their iphone at a time' I know you said they were apple's numbers, i'm not denying it or anything, I just want to see it.
I have an iPhone and 99% of the apps are TOTAL CRAP...so hitting a billion apps where people download free stuff endlessly just to have is not a big freaking deal.
"I have an iPhone"...you think that lends your spam credibility? If you do in fact own an iPhone you are downloading the wrong stuff...there are some amazing apps on there used by millions of people every day.
Take your hatefest elsewhere.
@Cheddar
Actually, since he has one it does.
If you don't like 99% of the apps, then buy the other 1%... It's that simple.
is it just me or does that image look very familiar...? Hmmmm... maybe because I seen this advertisement on the G1 box.... you dont believe me ... look it up.. colorful boxes flying out of the screen.. lol..
Yeah, you're right. Very similar.
To save people the trouble:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/2963949046_7685236792.jpg
lol...the next billion will come from Apple too..the other app stores are a farce.
Don't forget Apps run on iPod Touch & iPhones so the population is much bigger than just the 20m iPhones...
Hmm, I don't know. WinMo and Symbian have been around for long and have app development going on for a long time. Even in the absence of a formal distribution system, I'm sure they have pretty impressive numbers too.
FINALLY! I didn't really care about the contest, and all the downloads made trying to download an app hell! It would only download 1 out of 5 times, and it has never happened before the contest. Now I can go back to being a normal downloader...
Hey, if I win, anybody want the iPod touch?
Congrats Apple !! Obviously a successful concept - now copied by many other providers.
Another hit from a great company!
sent by my iPhone
What, putting applications on a phone?
Some people were copying the iPhone before it even came out, if that's what you mean.
@ Decoy: ".. a successful concept..." = the overall iPhone experience. w/out the App Store and its applications, how the iPhone connects thru iTunes, etc.. the iPhone would be just another phone.
If people like it or not... it sure is a success for Apple...
Zero to 1 billion 1 year.,
Gotta be a new record.
iPhone is definitely a recordbreaker.
Another requirement to earn covered title of iphonekiller.
Let's see of pre can bear zero to 1 billion apps in 11 months.
Seriously doubt it,.
1 billion app downloads in 9 months is an absolutely amazing feat.
Everyone can agree that a ton of the apps are worthless, but there really are some absolutely amazing applications out there.
Congrats, Apple.
Well done Apple iPhone developers...
Your hard work has lead to a billion downloads and produced stellar results for Apple again.
Maybe Apple will cut you guys a break now and lower its margins, you certainly deserve it.
I highly doubt that any other appstore will acheive this landmark as quickly, there are already lots of products out there that people already have.
Sorry but Engadget could make 1000 Pre Articles and won't generate as much visits or comments as those about Apple... Apple helps Engadget popularity
Do you guys think that it's worth it for somebody who is currently without a cellphone to spend $299 on an iPhone at this point?
Or should I just wait until June?
I think you should wait
for me, the $300 is a drop in the bucket. I just dont want to pay $30/mo x 2 for me and my wife. that's $720/yr. At this point I can't justify it. Let's say you keep your iphone for 2 years, that is less than 50¢ a day. that is peanuts. already have a phone + internet plan? get it now and use it and enjoy it. Even get a refurb from ATT for $150.
I'm on welfare and I can afford 4 iPhones .
Wait for the new one which will be at $199 and $299 most likely, unless they introduce a third size. Or buy the refurbished ones for $99 and $149. Keep in mind you MAY be missing out on video recording, a better camera, added sensors/gyros, support for AT&T's latest network, accelerated graphics and processor, more GB, and Apps that MAY only be able to run on the new one's hardware.
Wow, the day after my iPod Touch was stolen. Never Forget.
Why does everything have to be "Only on the App Store/iPhone"? Their marketing tactics are so transparent... Yet I suppose, due to the very nature of this announcement; effective. That said I'm sure there were plenty of other services which reached 1 Billion downloads within 9 months. Like Windows Update. Just the nature of that statement strikes me as odd... "1 Billion downloads in just 9 months, only on the App Store".
Yeah, I'm being nit-picky. Congrats iPhone/Touch owners, the App Store is the only thing I envy of you.
Flaw in your argument is that windows updates are fixes and app store is apps.
Based on the sheer number of apps avail and the sheer number of free apps, i am not sure there is a comparable service.
No, I was talking about the general statement. It implies that ONLY the App Store has had 1 million "downloads" (the ambiguous term) within 9 months. This is untrue; many other services have achieved this. But it's clever marketing.
Nope. You're still wrong. Context and implication is there.
also, it is a BILLION. not million.
just to give you an idea. Firefox was 1/2 way there last year, couldn't find out where they are now. but that is well over 9 months.
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/500million