Apple today announced that more than 15 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store since its debut three years ago. This announcement, coming less than six months after the store hit the ten billion download mark, clearly exemplifies the exponential growth of the company’s mobile iOS platform and its base of over 200 million users since its inception in 2007.
Speaking on the tremendous success of the company’s digital storefront, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller offered the following:
In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen. Thank you to all of our amazing developers who have filled it with over 425,000 of the coolest apps and to our over 200 million iOS users for surpassing 15 billion downloads.
Of the 425,000+ apps available in the store, Apple last week announced more than 100,000 are native to iPad. Apps are available in a wide variety of categories and languages to support users in the 90 countries where Apple products are commercially available. Over its nearly three year run, developers—both large and small—have innovated and pushed the boundaries of Apple’s already versatile mobile products.
Although the App Store is undoubtably a lucrative platform for Apple—the company reserves 30% of every app sale for itself—according to today’s release, Apple has paid out over $2.5 billion to developers to date.
These trends clearly indicate the App Store will likely continue to experience exponential growth in future months—presumably surpassing 20 billion downloads before the year’s end.