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Seagate ships two billion hard drives, sold half of them in the last four years
Seagate might have been selling hard drives since 1980, but it's seen a huge increase in demand in the last few years, allowing it to double its total sales since 2008, crossing the two billion unit milestone in the process. It's thanking everyone's unabated desire for streaming video, online shopping and other heavy-lifting data services for the uptick, with the company predicting that hunger for storage is likely to quadruple in the next two years. Thanks a lot, Ultra High Definition.
Apple announces 2 billion downloads, 85,000 apps from the App Store
Just after reaching 1 billion downloads five months ago, Apple announced this morning that the iPhone App Store has reached 2 billion downloads since its launch in July 2008. Also, Apple announced that 85,000 apps are available to download or buy from the App Store, and there are now over 125,000 registered iPhone developers with the iPhone Developer Program. These apps are available now to the 50 million devices running the iPhone OS (iPhone/iPod touch), creating an ever-expanding group of users.
GSM approaches 2 billion users
Twelve years for the first billion users, two and a half years for the second billion. Those are the staggering statistics being flaunted by the GSM Association this week as they prepare to sign up their two billionth customer, driving home the exponential growth mobile carriers worldwide have enjoyed as of late. Although China represents by far the largest single user base with over 370 million, Latin America and the Caribbean brought their "A" game last year, holding the titles for largest subscriber growth rate (97%) thanks to numerous carriers selecting GSM as their CDMA / TDMA upgrade path. So, how many peeps worldwide are toting cellphones, regardless of technology? According to the GSMA, there are 2.29 billion, making GSM the overwhelming standard of choice; we're guessing you can figure out who slots in at number two.
