Apple's App Store hits a billion downloads

Here's to another billion -- and not just from the App Store. Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, webOS, BlackBerry -- we're expecting every bit as much out of you guys, so let the games (and the productivity apps, utilities, flatulence simulators...) begin.

[bighap @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:12PM]

Who cares

[AVG @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:13PM]

Hipsters.

[Alex @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:15PM]

Obviously the people who click on the article to read it, then log in, then submit a reply to the article.

(I.e. YOU)

[Leo @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:16PM]

Paul A. Chapel and his 5 friends.

[Look_Around_You @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:22PM]

I'm curious.

How many Apps are there, and can someone provide a breakdown of the types available?


/Paul bait

[Dave95 @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:25PM]

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?

[OneLove @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:27PM]

@bighap: You cared enough to make a comment.

[Joseph @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:33PM]

Chris Ziegler and probably his father Zig.

[Titolito @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:38PM]

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!

[Joe @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:41PM]

Investors.

[garrenteed @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:45PM]

@Dave95
Could you please make your slobbering love affair towards Apple a little less obvious.

[Nohone @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:47PM]

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?

[Who2? @ Apr 23rd 2009 6:06PM]

The Winner.

[Look_Around_You @ Apr 23rd 2009 6:09PM]

"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!

[Joseph @ Apr 23rd 2009 6:10PM]

@nohone-
Cracks? 1 BILLION downloads. If you hate on that, then you're a hater. Plain and simple.

[Greg @ Apr 23rd 2009 6:19PM]

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 =(

[Nohone @ Apr 23rd 2009 6:43PM]

@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/

[Tony @ Apr 23rd 2009 8:00PM]

@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

[Alan Strangis @ Apr 23rd 2009 8:09PM]

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.

[cmsb55 @ Apr 23rd 2009 8:11PM]

@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.

[Jon Doe. @ Apr 23rd 2009 9:51PM]

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.

[KarlW @ Apr 23rd 2009 9:55PM]

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.

[nerdtalker @ Apr 23rd 2009 10:56PM]

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.

[VanillaSpice @ Apr 23rd 2009 11:41PM]

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.

[Mike @ Apr 24th 2009 1:48AM]

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.

[jguilb @ Apr 26th 2009 12:14PM]

i care .. does that answer your question?

[oliver hart @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:12PM]

sweet

[DirtyVegas @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:25PM]

Yeah, pretty cool considering the time it was achieved.

[Quantumphysics @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:37PM]

iMOB ONLINE

123751495

[Roland @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:12PM]

Keep Dreaming.

[vdex34 @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:13PM]

Fanboy tiem...

[Alex @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:14PM]

Aww, its too bad, I was trying to get the billionth... with a free app... :P

[ash @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:14PM]

When does iFart 2: Wet and Squishy come out?

[james @ Apr 23rd 2009 6:08PM]

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.

[Flunky Carter @ Apr 23rd 2009 8:32PM]

@james
Useful to you is probably not useful to me, etc... so keep your Caucasian yap shut.

[Roland @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:15PM]

Obiouvsly my "Keep Dreaming" go to the haters ms-fanboy.

[Mark @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:18PM]

why would anyone with a phone care how many apps had been downloaded on it? It affects the user in no way.

[rudolphe @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:22PM]

It does affect the user, more apps being downloaded means more apps being creatged.

[Dave95 @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:34PM]

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......

[MONKEY @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:17PM]

So Apple is basically saying "Thank you for making us over a billion dollars."

[DirtyVegas @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:24PM]

I'm sure a large percentage of those downloads are free apps.

[BuddyBoy @ Apr 23rd 2009 6:08PM]

But also a large percentage will have been worth more then $1.
Probably balances itself out.

[cmsb55 @ Apr 23rd 2009 8:14PM]

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.

[CraigJ @ Apr 23rd 2009 8:24PM]

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.

[CraigJ @ Apr 24th 2009 12:23AM]

sorry - 37 million.

[damiaking @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:17PM]

ohh dammm i wish i could be the billioth has anyone seen all the stuf you get if your that lucky one

[thexspencerxshow @ Apr 23rd 2009 10:34PM]

actually it doesnt matter if you were the billionth. you could still win. :) anyone whos downloaded an app since the contest started is eligible.

[ScottishDan @ Apr 24th 2009 3:44PM]

Yeh tell me about it - and some spotty faced 13yo has got all that gear - lucky kid

[jake @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:18PM]

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.

[Roland @ Apr 23rd 2009 5:21PM]

Man 10,000$ gift-card itunes! Man how many frakkin' music!